REBELS GET SINGLED TO DEATH BY ROYALS

In what was billed as an early season big game for the Rebels, turned out to be one of the more disappointing loses as a result of bloop single after bloop single after bloop single by the chippy Armena Royals. The loss pushes the Rebels out of the three way tie for first place with the Holden Blue Jays, who are now 4-1 after a 1-0 win over the Camrose Roadrunners and the Royals.

Win - Zenan Sherbaniuk

Loss - Scott Koughan (1-2)

After a walk off win versus the rival Bardo Athletics last Thursday, the Rebels were hoping to keep the momentum going in Armena to silence the mom filled crowd and keep the team in the hunt for the PBL Pennant. The Rebels would send Scott Koughan to the mound looking to collect his second win of the season, his first as a Ryley Rebel. It was the Rebels offence that got the game started in the right direction. 

Young Zenan Sherbaniuk would get the start for the Royals, his first ever apperance against the Rebels, ans was quickly greeted by back to back singles by 2B Corey Epp and C Chad Nelson. RF Kevin Reinholt would load the bases on a one out single for the Rebels to strike with CF Kris Kushnerick up to bat. Kushnerick would hit a sharp ground to the left side for the Royals third baseman to start the 5-4-3 double play. Kushnerick would hustle down the line to beat the throw from the second baseman and the ball would riccochet off of the glove of the Royals first baseman allowing Nelson to follow Epp from third base to back it 2-0 early for the Rebels. Kushnerick would steal second and be scored on a two out RBI single to left field by 3B Shawn Pilgaard for a 3-0 lead after the first inning. 

In hind sight, Royals lead off hitter, P Zenan Sherbaniuk would sum up what the Rebels night would be on defence as he would bloop a single over the left side of Ryley's infied and infront of the outfield. Rebels P Scott Koughan would hold the Royals incheck through two innings but surrender a RBI single to the Royal's fan favourite SS Adam Johnson to make it a 3-1 Rebels lead two innings. While Koughan was getting ground ball after ground ball and working quickly, Sherbaniuk was being hit fairly hard by the Rebels offence, but luck was on the Royals side as it seemed like fly ball after fly ball was finding its way into a glove. With the defence of Armena holding, their offence would rally and break through against Koughan in in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-3 lead. 

A lead off error would allow the Royals secondbase man to reach safely with RF Jason Buzzell follwing with a single into right field. After a passed ball would move the runners into scoring position, the Royals left fielder would score them both on a RBI single but would promotly be picked off on the Koughan to Koughan connection for the second out. But once again the Rebels would have no luck as back to back to back bloop singles would result in another run before C Chad Nelson would get a Royals runner trying to score on a passed ball to end the inning, which saw the Royals move ahead 4-3. 

The Rebels would answer back in the top of the fifth inning against Sherbaniuk as for an inning it looked like luck would swing back to the Rebels offence. 2B Corey Epp would lead off the inning with a double down the right field line before C Chad Nelson would collect his second single moving Epp to third base. 1B Craig Koughan would load the bases on a walk allowing RF Kevin Reinholt to tie the game with a sacrifice fly to centre field. With two out 3B Shawn Pilgaard would hit a clutch two RBI double to move the Rebels back into the lead by a score of 6-4. It would however be the last lead the Rebels would hold. 

In the bottom of the sixth inning the Royals would once again rally and chip away at the Rebels and Koughan with more singles and a couple of extra base hits. For the second inning of the game, the Royals would have the lead off hitter reach on an error, but this time they would see their first extra base hit of the evening when their catcher would drive a ball into the left field corner for a RBI triple and a 6-5 Rebels lead. The Royals would waste little time in tying the game as the very next batter would score the runner from third base to make it 6-6. Back to back to back bloop singles by the Royals once again would load the bases for SS Adam Johnson to connect on the teams second extra base hit of the game on a bases clearing double and a 10-6 lead. During the inning the Rebels would go to the bullpen and P Corey Epp, but the damage had been done. 

3B Shawn Pilgaard would continue to impress the Rebels coaching staff as he would go 2 for 2 with walk and three RBIs and a stolen base in the loss. 2B/LF/P Corey Epp and C Chad Nelson would once again cause havoc at the top of the order for the Rebels combining for four of the six Rebels' runs and four of the nine hits. On the flip side, the Rebels 7-8-9 hitters would combine for a 1 for 9 night compared to the 7-8-9 Royals hitters who would go 6 for 9 on the night and scoring four runs with all of their hits being well placed flares and bloops.

It was the kind of game that was frustrating for the Rebels as the pitches they put into play had the Royals defence, specifically their outfielders, running in circles to make plays while it seemed like everything the Royals put a bat on somehow found some open field. The positive for the team is that everyone was putting the ball into play and the team will just have to hope that luck will be on their side on Thursday as they will away the suddenly surging Leduc Milleteers (3-3) at the Ryley Ballpark.