REBELS REMAIN UNDEFEATED, WIN UGLY IN HOME OPENER

There used to be a time not too long ago that when the Rebels would play ugly baseball they would end up on the losing end of the deal. But over the last season and into the early part of the 2015 Powerline Baseball League season, the Rebels have finally been able to win an ugly one once in awhile. As was the case tonight as the Rebels needed the ugly win to move to 3-0 on the season as they would put together a 13-8 win over the Armena Royals in front of a large crowd that spilled onto most of the bleachers around the diamond. 

Win - Corey Epp (2-0)     Loss - Doug Morris

Second year Rebel Shawn Pilgaard would get the ball for the 2015 Home Opener with his last start for the Rebels being the PBL Championship Series clinching game three win against the Holden Blue Jays on August 7, 2014. Pilgaard was named the player of the game for the Rebels on Thursday night, powering the Rebels to a win with a three run home run and five RBIs on top of pitching effectively during his four innings of work, despite giving up seven runs, five of which were unearned. 

The young squad from Armena proved to have a formidable lineup to challenge the Rebels, specifically the one and two hitters of centre fielder Zenan Sherbaniuk and short stop Dylan Borman. The duo would combine for five of the Royals ten hits and three of the eight runs plus five RBIs. The pair would reach base safely a total of seven times out of the eight that they came to the plate. Borman would finish a home run short of the cycle on the evening but would struggle in the newly shaped Ryley Ballpark infield with a pair of errors, ironically to Camrose Axemen teammates Corey Epp and Kris Kushnerick. While both teams had struggles with the hard and dry Ryley outfield grass, Sherbaniuk and Borman capitalized the most on the tricky mix of patchy grass and patches of clay. In the first inning Borman would rip a single into right field which quickly turned into a RBI double as the ball would rocket away from right fielder Corey Epp. In the fourth inning Borman would once again capitalize on the rough field when he would once again rip a line drive into right field with the ball this time sky rocketing up and over the outstretched arm of a leaping Epp for a bases clearing three run triple. While the ball was trampolining off the turf in right field, it was deadening in centre field. In the sixth inning Zenan Sherbaniuk would smoke a line drive into centre field which appeared to be a one hop to the glove of centre fielder Tyson Schielke who was charging the ball. Instead the ball hit the turf and turned into a worm burner all the way to the fence for an easy stand up double, the Royals third extra base hit of the night. 

Right from the start of the game the Rebels offence announced its presence with authority after a pair of lacklustre performances against the Camrose Roadrunners and Leduc Milleteers. Right fielder Corey Epp would take the third pitch of the game and deposit it over the right centre fence for a solo home run before most fans could get to their seats and cut what was a 2-0 Royals lead after the top of the first inning down to 2-1. Epp’s first inning home run was the franchises first home run in the first inning of game since the team came back to the PBL in 2009. The Rebels would take a 3-2 lead by the time the inning was done with the first three Rebels to face youngster Kyler Charchun reaching base and eventually scoring while the first five Rebels hitters would reach base safely before the first out. 

In the second inning the Rebels power was still flowing, this time pitcher Shawn Pilgaard would Giancarlo Stanton a Charchun offering well over the left field fence and into the slopitch diamond bleachers on a massive three run home run that seemed to just keep climbing up and over the fence. The three RBIs for Pilgaard would eventually turn into five RBIs on the night as he would follow up his second inning home run with a RBI bases loaded walk in the third inning versus Royals relief man Doug Morris and a two RBI single into left centre in the fifth inning. 

A crucial turning point in the game occurred in the top of the fourth inning when the Royals would be granted an error by first baseman Kyle Reinholt which extended the inning for Armena allowing Borman to drive home three runs on his triple. With two outs and the bases loaded in a 7-2 ball game, Reinholt would attempt to field a ground ball to beat Kyler Charchun to the bag to end the inning. Instead Reinholt would move too quickly and not secure the ball allowing Charchun to hustle down the line to keep the inning going and scoring Lyndon Galvin to make it 7-3. The play was huge as the Royals would go on to score five unearned runs in the inning to tie the ball game up 7-7. The eventual game winning run for the Rebels occurred in the home half of the fifth inning when now third baseman Shawn Pilgaard would hit a two RBI single into the left centre scoring catcher Chad Nelson and right fielder Craig Koughan, making it a 10-8 Rebels lead, something they would not relinquish. 

The win moves the Rebels to 3-0 and atop the PBL standings along with the now 3-0 Beaumont Angels. The Rebels will take on the Bardo Athletics on Tuesday May 19th before heading to Beaumont on Thursday May 21st to play the Angels. The Rebels will need the offence to continue to fire on all cylinders as the Athletics are coming off of a meeting with the Camrose Roadrunners which saw them score 21 runs against the struggling Rose City franchise. The Angels will also be a tough challenge for the Rebels as they have yielded only 3 runs against over thier first three games of the season. First pitches for both games are scheduled for 7:00pm.