REBELS CLAIM 2014 PBL CHAMPIONSHIP

The Ryley Rebels held on to claim the teams first PBL Championship since re-joining the Powerline Baseball League in 2009 and the villages first title since 2000 after a string of six championships in the previous eight seasons, with a 3-2 victory over the Holden Blue Jays. The clinching win tonight was the ninth in eleven games for the Rebels dating back to the start of July as they team would get hot and jump from as low as sixth place in the PBL standings to first place before finishing the season 9-5 and in third place. The great baseball would continue for the Rebels in the playoffs sweeping the five time PBL Champion Leduc Milleteers before winning the PBL Championship in three games vs the Holden Blue Jays in front of a capacity crowd at the old Ryley Ballpark. 

Win - Shawn Pilgaard (2-0)

Loss - Grayson Soprovich

The great playoff run by the 2014 Rebels could be attributed to the depth of the team and especially in the pitching staff this season. The Rebels would send a fresh Shawn Pilgaard to the hill, who last pitched against the Leduc Milleteers in the game two victory, while the Jays were forced to go back to a tired Grayson Soprovich who pitched six innings only two days earlier in the Rebels bottom of the seventh walk off win. With a high pitch count on Tuesday and the Rebels being patient at the plate on Thursday night, Soprovich would pitch well for his team but a mistake here and there would lead to the loss as Ryley would only collect four hits, but three of which were doubles. 

The Jays would come out swining against Pilgaard looking to keep the offence rolling from Tuesday night as lead off hitter Alan Ziegler would hit a single followed up a Grayson Soprovich single to put a runner in scoring position early. A big strkeout of Jays power hitting 1B Zak Lang followed by a shallow pop fly to RF Bryan Ziegler, batting in the cleanup spot for the absent all-star catcher Braedon Majeski, would give the Rebels a pair of outs. 2B Logan Skori would work a walk against Pilgaard to load the bases but a key strikeout of Pilgaard's Provost Combine Pilots teammare, Trevor Bromby, would end the threat and began a trend of missed opportunites by the Jays offence. 

Veteran leadoff man LF Corey Epp would get the Rebels offence going as he would step in to lead off the game with a walk before swiping second base on the first pitch of 2B Tom Shulba's at bat for a runner in scoring position. Shulba would pop out to the catcher for out number one, bringing the white hot SS Dylan Solberg to the plate. Solberg had been terrorizing Jays pitching since game one, going 4 for 8 with a double and a walk off home run heading into game three with even the outs off of Solberg's bat being hard hit balls. The Ryley native would once again come through and bring the Rebels fans to their feet as he would send a Soprovich offering to the right centre gap to score Epp from second base on the RBI double. Looking for more the Rebels top hitter and clean up man 3B Craig Koughan would settle in and for the second time in as many games, earn a trip to first base with after being hit by a pitch. Soprovich would get out of the inning as his counterpart, P Shawn Pilgaard would ground out to fellow Combine Pilot Trevor Bromby at third base. After one the game was a 1-0 Rebels lead. 

Soprovich would escape trouble in the second inning after giving up a one out walk to C Chad Nelson and a ground rule double over the centre field fence to CF Kris Kushnerick. The hard Ryley outfield would take a run away from the Rebels forcing Nelson to stop at third base as opposed to walking in for the Rebels second run. The bad luch would continue for the Rebels in the inning as with runners in scoring position Soprovich would appear to uncork a wild pitch sending Nelson across the plate from third and Kushnerick to third base from second. The umpire would rule that the ball hit RF Dustin Solberg in the little toe sending the runners back and Solberg to first. The missed call would prove huge as Soprovich would bare down and get a big double play to end the inning with the bases loaded as 3B Trevor Bromby would step on the base for the second out and throw a strike to C Stephen Hrabec to get the third out  keeping the game a 1-0 Rebels lead. 

The Jays would strike for their first run in the top of the third inning when P Grayson Soprovich would lead off the inning with a double to the right centre gap just out of the reach of CF Kris Kushnerick who would nearly get Soprovich strolling into second base. Pilgaard would get two big outs as 1B Zak Land would pop up in the infield to Pilgaard and RF Bryan Ziegler would have his tough night at the plate continue with his first of three strikeouts in the game with runners in scoring position. 2B Logan Skori would make the Rebels pay on a line drive single up the middle to easily score Soprovich tying the game up at 1-1. The inning would end on the play though as Skori would try to take second but CF Kris Kushnerick would throw a strike to 2B Tom Shulba who put on a great tag to end the inning and get the Rebels offence back to the plate to retake the lead in the fourth inning. 

P Shawn Pilgaard would lead off the fourth with a line drive single to centre field ahead of 1B Kevin Reinholt battling Soprovich for a walk to put the go ahead run into scoring position for the Rebels. C Chad Nelson would move the runners into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. With two out RF Dustin Solberg would strikeout swining but the curveball in the dirt would elude C Steve Hrabec allowing Pilgaard to score from third on a great slide with Soprovich trying to block the plate. The Rebels would threaten in the fifth inning when 2B Tom Shulba would hit the Rebels third double of the game off of Soprovich to lead off the inning. After a wild pitch and a deep fly ball to right field off the bat of Pilgaard, Shulba would find himself at third base and after Soprovich tossed another curveball in the dirt which found its way to the back stop he would make an attempt to come on for an insurance run. While it appeared that Shulba got his legs under the high tag by Soprovich, the home plate umpire disagreed nearly sending a pair of Rebels to the clubhouse early for expressing their dismay with the call. 

The Rebels would have to wait until the sixth inning to add what would be the game winning run on the ever exciting sacrifice fly. 1B Kevin Reinholt who was left at the plate on the play at home to end the fifth would hit what appeared to be a routine ground ball to 2B Logan Skori. The Jays second baseman would have the ball go through the wickets giving Reinholt first base. The Rebels would put on a hit and run with C Chad Nelson at the plate as Soprovich began to throw more and more curveballs. The gamble paid off for the Rebels as an inside curveball was left along by Nelson allowing Reinholt to swipe second base as the errant throw would end up in centre field. As Reinholt chugged towards third base, CF Colten Ziegler would toss the ball about 30' into the ground allowing Reinholt to stand up into third base as the ball rolled into the infield. The pair of errors would prove costly as C Chad Nelson would send a deep fly ball to centre to easily score Reinholt from third and give the Rebels a 3-1 lead.

The insurance run in the sixth would prove to be huge for the Rebels as the Jays would put forth a valiant effort in the top of the seventh trying to tie the game up and extend their season at least another half inning. LF Alan Ziegler would lead off with a walk and P Grayson Soprovich hit a line drive single into left field for a quick runnner in scoring position situation with slugger 1B Zak Lang stepping up to the plate. The Rebels would continue to hold the power hitting Lang at bay in the series as he would fly out to LF Corey Epp for the first out of the inning. RF Bryan Ziegler would have his forgettable night come to an end, striking out for the third time in the game and leaving a total of seven runners on base, five of which were in scoring position over the course of the night. 2B Logan Skori would come back up the middle to score Ziegler on a hard line drive RBI single. CF Kris Kushnerick would elect to not go home and try to nab Ziegler and instead throw behind Soprovich who made it to second base on the play and keep the tying run at second as opposed to moving up 90'. Needing a single to potentially score Soprovich from second base, 3B Trevor Bromby would step to the plate to once again face the Combine Pilot teammates of C Chad Nelsona and P Shawn Pilgaard. Pilgaard had owned Bromby through the first three at bats getting a pair of strikeouts a ground ball to 2B Tom Shulba. In his fourth plate appearance Bromby finally looked to come through if not for the foot of Pilgaard. A hard hit ground ball up the middle would see Pilgaard throw the foot down to deflect it into the P-3B-SS triangle and potentially load the bases. With the ball slowly come to a stop, a charging SS Dylan Solberg would come through with a great pickup and throw on the run with everything he had behind it to get a sliding Bromby at first base to end the game and win the PBL Championship in the unconvential 1-6-3 put out and an end to the third great game in a row between the two teams.

Through three games of the 2014 PBL Championship, baseball fans were treated to some of the best PBL baseball that many have seen in years. The series contained everything a baseball fan could ask for with dominating pitching performances, clutch hitting, great defensive plays, come from behind wins, multiple lead changes and some of the best baseball weather they could ask for. It was extra sweet for the Rebels to win at home infront of the home town fans who had to wait fourteen years for another title after waiting for eight years just for baseball to return to Ryley. The 2014 Ryley Rebels squad had a total of five hold overs from the 2000 PBL Championship team with Dustin Solberg, Kris Kushnerick and Travis Bugge being youngsters on a team that featured Don and Ron Oslund at the tail end of their years with the late '80s and '90s Rebels dynasty. 

It was a great end to a year that saw the Rebels have things start to click both on and off the field after a disappointing 2013 season which saw them miss the playoffs for the first time in the teams modern history. The Rebels will surely take care of the PBL Championship and will try really hard to avoid the missing trophy fiasco of the late '80s at the hands of the Ryley Rebels. The team will make every attempt to not leave the trophy too close to a fire pit, drop it, throw it, submerge it, alter it in any way or leave it in some establishment in unknown parts. But there is a Reinholt stag and wedding coming up in September so there will be no promises. Who knows, perhaps this trophy in the hands of the Rebels will bring good luck and the old trophy will reappear from a dark farm shed somewhere nearby?

2B: Dy.Solberg (6), Kushnerick (4), Shulba (2)

TB: Dy.Solberg (2), Kushnerick (2), Shulba (2), Pilgaard (1)

RBI: Dy.Solberg 1 (10), Nelson 1 (9)

SAC: Nelson (3, 4)

HBP: C.Koiughan (3), Du.Solberg (1)

2B: Soprovich

TB: Soprovich (4), A.Ziegler (2), Lo.Skori (2), Lang (1), Hrabec (1), R.Ziegler (1)

RBI: Lo.Skori (2)