REBELS BRING DOWN ANGELS IN EXTRAS

On Monday night the Rebels travelled to Four Season Park in Beuamont to take on the Angels in a huge game for both teams with PBL Playoff implications. After a slow start the Rebels would force extra innings by scoring the tying run in the seventh inning before a huge eigth inning would push the game to a 16-8 win for the Rebels.

Win - Tom Shulba (1-1)

Loss - Denis LeBlanc

First year Rebel Shawn Pilgaard would make his first start for the club as he would opposed Denis LeBlanc from the Angels. Pilgaard would make it through three innings surrendering six hits and five runs, but only three were earned due to an error in the second inning. RF Brett Coutney, C Greg McIntosh and SS Darien Goudreau would start the game with three consective singles to load the bases in the first inning as Pilgaard was settling in. He would escape the game by trading three ground ball outs for a pair of runs to limit the damage early. But the Angels would come back for more in the second inning starting off with a leadoff triple by 1B Matt Berube. The Angels would add another extra base hit in the inning when RF Brett Coutney would collect his second hit in as many innings with a RBI double to make it 4-3 Angels. A sacrifice fly off the bat of Goudreau would make it 5-3 Angels through two with Pilgaard exiting after a scoreless third inning in favor of P Tom Shulba. 

The Rebels defence would let down Shulba early in his relief appearance with two errors coming to the Rebels middle infield of SS Dylan Solberg and 2B Brian Tavaroli leading to a pair of unearned runs and extending the lead to 7-4 for the Angels. Shulba would dig in and pitch well for the Rebels through his five innings of work out of the pen. Shulba would scatter six hits over five innings allowing only a single earned run in the sixth inning. While Shulba was holding the Angels at bay, it was the Rebels offence time to take over late in the game to secure the win.

Heading into the sixth inning the Rebels found themselves down 7-4 and in previous years would have folded under the pressure. But the 2014 Rebels team has been able to get the bats going late in the game time and time again and Monday night was no different. The inning would start with the first three hitters reaching safely. CF Tyson Schielke would lead off the inning with a single before moving into scoring position on his second stolen base of the game. LF Corey Epp would earn a walk and a double steal would put a pair of Rebels in scoring position with the middle of the order coming up. C Chad Nelson would score Schielke on a RBI single ahead of SS Dylan Solberg's RBI ground out to move the Rebels to a 7-7 tie. 

With the Angels adding another run in the home half of the sixth the Rebels would need to once again clutch up in the top of the seventh for any hope at a win and to continue their push to the playoffs. 2B Brian Tavaroli would start the seventh off with a sharp one hopper that would bounce off the Angels short stop for a lead off single. P Tom Shulba would move Tavaroli into scoring position by getting hit with a LeBlanc pitch with no one out. But LeBlanc would appear to settle in after the hit batter by getting CF Tyson Schielke and LF Corey Epp to strikeout to quickly put the Rebels in a two out, bottom of the seventh situation trailing by one with the tying run at second base. First year Rebels catcher Chad Nelson would come up big for the blue by collecting a RBI single to tie the game and send the Rebels into extra innings after Shulba would work through a scoreless bottom of the seventh. In the eighth inning, the flood gates would open for the Rebels. 

Back to back singles to start the inning by 3B Shawn Pilgaard and 1B Craig Koughan quickly put the Rebels in the drivers seat against LeBlanc who was clearly tired on the hill. 2B Brian Tavaroli would collect the game winning RBI on a single to score Pilgaard and make it a 9-8 ball game and would start a string of seven Rebels' hits in a row. Tavaroli, Shulba, Schielke and Epp would hit four singles in a row followed by back to back doubles by Nelson and Solberg before Pilgaard would hit his second single of the inning and seventh hit in a row against Angels relief pitcher Darien Goudreau. A two out RBI single by RF Kris Kushnerick would close the book on LeBlanc who would surrender a total of sixteen runs (fourteen earned) as the Rebels would roll to score eight on ten hits in the top of the eighth inning. Shulba would end the game for the Rebels in the bottom of the eighth by shutting out the Angels in their last hope at a comeback to secure the 16-8 win. 

The Rebels entered the game with a must win mentality as they now walk away with a 2-1 series advantage over the Angels, who are a team that could end up tied with the Rebels in the standings. The PBL standings currently have five teams within a game of each other and first place all the way up to fifth place is currently undecided and will need the remaining three days of games to decide the playoff picture. The Rebels next action is on Wednesday night as they will take on the Armena Royals in Ryley to close out the season series between the two teams. Armean won game one back in May with a 11-6 victory over Scott Koughan and the Rebels. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00pm on what should be another hot night on the ball field.