SOPROVICH OVERWHELMS REBELS IN MASTERFUL PERFORMANCE

The Ryley Rebels fell to 3-3 on the season after suffering a 2-0 loss to the now 5-2 Holden Blue Jays on Thursday night in Holden. On the hill for the Blue Jays was Grayson Soprovich who completely dominated the Rebels, a team who has not been on a ball field in 16 days, collecting fifteen strikeouts while allowing only three hits on his way to the complete game shut out win. Of the nine Rebels who were able to suit up for the team on Thursday night, only CF Corey Epp would evade a strikeout on the night. RF Kevin Reinholt and LF Brett Holmberg would be issued three strikeouts a piece while SS Brian Tavaroli would be handed the Golden Sombrero on the rough evening at the plate for the Rebels.

Win - Grayson Soprovich

Loss - Craig Koughan (1-1)

While Soprovich was dealing strikeouts, Rebels pitcher Craig Koughan was holding the Blue Jays offense at bay in a different manner as he would not record a strikeout but would get three double plays from his defence. Koughan would dodge bullets through the first five innings as each inning the Jays would work their lead off hitter on base. But each inning the Rebels defence and Koughan's pitching would get them out of trouble until the sixth inning when the Rebels were finally caught playing with fire. For the sixth inning in a row the Jays would get their lead off man on board and for the third time in the game it would come via the walk. Zak Lang would be issued the walk ahead of a Braedon Majeski single to put the go ahead run into scoring position in the bottom of six. Logan Skori would use his bat to help the Jays by sacrificing Lang to third and Majeski to second to put the Rebels into a tough spot. Allan Ziegler would get the fifth and final walk of the evenign from Koughan to load the bases before Trevor Bromby would score what turned out to be the game winning run on a RBI single to score Lang. The Jays would add an insurance run when Stephen Hrabec would collect a RBI on a fielders choice to seal the victory for the Jays. 

With the loss, the Rebels fall to 3-3 on the season and it also means that the Rebels have yet to beat a team ahead of them in the standings. The only wins so far in 2014 have come against the 0-8 Camrose Roadrunners and the 3-5 Bardo Athletics, which the Rebels beat twice. The Rebels remaining schedule will include one against the Armena Royals and Leduc Millleteers as well as next Tuesdays match versus the Holden Blue Jays, two more games against the struggling Camrose Roadrunners and three against the surging Beaumont Angels who are currently sitting in second place in the PBL Standings. That means six of the remaining eight games will be against teams currently sitting in the PBL Playoff picture and what could be a tough road for the Rebels to get back into postseason unless they can finally put it together to win a big game once in awhile. 

The next action for the Rebels will be on Tuesday June 17 as the Holden Blue Jays come to Ryley in the back end of the home and home. It will be the last time the two teams will meet in the regular season. After that the Rebels will then travel to Camrose to take on the Roadrunners at Harry Andreassen Field as they look to move to 2-0 against the Roadrunners in 2014. The Rebels schedule will then shift to the 2014 Ryley Sports Days Baseball Tournament where they will be joined by four other teams in three days of baseball from June 20 - 22.