REBELS SWEEP FIVE TIME CHAMPS MILLETEERS

The Ryley Rebels are heading back to the Powerline Baseball League Championship Final for the first time since the 2010 season by sweeping the five time champion Leduc Milleteers tonight with a 5-1 victory. In 2010 it was a 2-1 series win over the expansion Holden Blue Jays which led the Rebels to being swept by the Leduc Milleteers for what was their second PBL title in a row. The Rebels were roadblocked and swept each time by the Milleteers in the 2009 and 2011 PBL Semi-Finals as well as the 2010 PBL Championship Final. The Rebels would finally get revenge in 2014 on the back of timely hitting and quality pitching.

Win - Shawn Pilgaard (1-0)

Loss - Steve Pahl

Teams ran into some rain on the way to Ryley and during warmups the skies briefly opened up but would hold off long enough for the teams to get game two in. To the hill for the Rebels was first year player Shawn Pilgaard while Leduc would counter with veteran Steve Pahl who has won numerous big games for the Milleteers during their incredible run of PBL Championships. In years past the Rebels would not have been able to compete with the depth of the Milleteers on the mound, but the 2014 Rebels roster had shown the league the pitching depth has now become a strength of the team. 

Pilgaard would pitch extremely well for the Rebels through his six innings of work allowing only four hits against the Milleteers and surrendered only one unearned run. A quick first inning by Pilgaard would lead to another quick second inning, aided by an inning ending double play. 1B Murray Doyle would hit a hard groundball up the middle but was picked up by SS Dylan Solberg who would promptly step on the bag and throw a strike to 1B Kevin Reinholt to end the inning. The Milleteers would finally record their first hit of the game in the third inning when C Shane Gerein would hit a line drive two out single into rightfield where a bad hop off of the hard rock clay to skip through RF Corey Epp for a two base error. The Milleteers would not have a runner safely at third base for the remainder of the game as Pilgaard would get SS Jon Anstey to ground out to end the inning. 

Leduc would finally get on the board in the sixth inning when 3B Kevin Doyle would tage a Pilgaard offering to deep centre for a leadoff double. With one out P Steve Pahl would drive a ball into right field to easily score Doyle from third. Epp would come up gunning and throw a strike to C Chad Nelson which would cause RF Kirk Smith to hammer on the brakes around thrid base. With Smith too far around third Nelson would connect with 3B Craig Koughan to nab Smith for out number two and to keep the Rebels lead at 5-1 and kill the rally.

With the pitching and defence holding the defending champs at bay, the offense would string together two innings with big hits and suspect Milleteers defence. In the second inning P Shawn Pilgaard would lead off the inning by reaching first base on an error to 3B Kevin Doyle. The error would prove costly as a walk to 2B Brian Tavaroli and a sacrifice bunt by 1B Kevin Reinholt would put runners on third and second with one out. RF Corey Epp would once again come up clutch for the Rebels hitting a deep fly ball off the right field fence to score Pilgaard to make it 1-0. The Rebels would continue to manufacture runs as CF Tyson Schielke would put a ball on the ground to the right side to score Tavaroli for the Rebels second run of the inning. 

The third inning would be a back breaker for the the Milleteers defence as three errors would lead to three Rebels runs and put the game out of reach. SS Dylan Solberg would start the inning with a line drive single to right centre and get himself into scoring position with a back corner slide ahead of the tag of SS Jon Anstey. Another error to 3B Kevin Doyle would move Solberg into third base allowing Solberg to score on a bases loaded passed ball to make it 3-0. The big error came when CF Tyson Schielke would hit a ground ball to SS Jon Anstey who would be unable to handle the ball allowing two more unearned runs to score.

The Rebels would turn to the bullpen and bring on P Tom Shulba for the seventh to secure the four run victory. Shulba would get PH Brad Engel and LF Mark Walker swinging before ending the Milleteers season on a C Shane Gerein ground ball to 2B Brian Tavaroli.

The team will now have to wait until at least next Thursday before they get back onto the field as they will await the winner of the Armena Royals and Holden Blue Jays. A Royals series win will mean the Rebels will head to Armena for game one while a Jays win would give the Rebels home field advantage for the Championship Final.   

2B: Dy.Solberg (4), Epp (5)

TB: Dy.Solberg (3), Epp (2), C.Koughan (1), Ke.Reinholt (1)

RBI: Epp 1 (15), Schielke 1 (10)

SAC: Ke.Reinholt (2)

SB: Shulba (6), Dy.Solberg (4)

2B: K.Doyle

TB: K.Doyle (2), Gerein (1), M.Doyle (1), S.Pahl (1)

DP: M.Doyle