Rebels Hand the Milleteers Their First Loss Of The Year In A Wet And Wild One

The Leduc Milleteers, Ryley Rebels, and the boys in blue proved tonight why wimps don’t play the game as they toughed one out in the rain tonight in Leduc. With the Milleteers on a 10 game winning streak to start the year they looked to be a runaway for first in the league, while the Rebels were just trying to claw their way back to 0.500 after dropping their first three league games. 

The diamond held up pretty well for about four innings, then the mound, plate area, and first started to get pretty soupy and I am sure the Milleteers will be getting a fine, or at east a stern talking to from the city. Seeing as many of the Milleteers actually built the mound in Leduc and used to have to pick weeds on the diamond when the city neglected it for a few years, they might have an argument that it is their mound to destroy.

Nevertheless the two fans that showed up tonight were treated to a whale of a ball game. The Milleteers went with their ace from last year, Steven Pahl, who due to all the depth the Milleteers have on the staff and some untimely rainouts hadn’t pitched in a month. Fresh off of getting snubbed by all 30 Major League Teams for the 13th year in a row in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft Pahl was eager to prove the scouts wrong. Turns out they were right again as he battled some wildness due to the long layoff and even a bizarre balk that eventually led to the Rebels first run. He did also however have some decent stuff as he ended up fanning 12 on route to taking the loss. The pivotal at bat came with two out in the seventh with Dylan Solberg on second and Josh Lyons at the plate. Lyons continued to foul off tough pitch after tough pitch with two strikes on him before lining one to right to plate Solberg to tie it up. Then Travis Bugge managed to stroke one up the middle, then got caught in a run down between first and second before eventually being tagged out, but not before Lyons managed to score the winning run.

 

On the other side the Rebels went with veteran hurler Ronny Oslund. Oslund was crafty all night as he used his dancing knuckler early in the game and then went more with the heater late to keep the Milleteers guessing. The Milleteers seemingly had runners on every inning, but like a true veteran Oslund kept working his way out of trouble to preserve the victory. The game surprisingly featured some pretty good defense tonight as there were few errors, save for a throwing error by Pahl. 

Next up for the Milleteers is a game tomorrow night in Bardo, but judging by the weather it will probably be rained out. The Milleteers then travel back to Bardo for the annual Bardo Day Tournament on Saturday where they will be taking on the Armena Royals at 12:30.

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Steven Pahl