REBELS DOWN BARDO TO REMAIN UNDEFEATED
Posted May 19, 2015
The Ryley Rebels and Bardo Athletics renewed hostilities on Tuesday night as the green and yellow invaded the Ryley Sports Grounds. The Rebels were looking for their fourth win in a row and their best start to a season since rejoining the Powerline Baseball League for the 2009 season. Once again the Rebels would look to defence and pitching to win the day, as Rebels rookie pitcher Barry Truss would throw a complete game shutout in the 4-0 win in front of a decent crowd. Baseball fans have come to call the Rebels offence streaky at the best of times and so far the start of the 2015 season has been no exception. The biggest difference has been when the Rebels bats are struggling, the pitching and defence has been solid, keeping the team in games with big outs when the opposition is threatening.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | LB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bardo Athletics | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 7 |
| Ryley Rebels | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 4 | 6 | 2 | 8 |
Win - Barry Truss (2-0) Loss - Ryan Olson
While the Rebels were turning to first year player Barry Truss to throw, the Athletics started the game with long time PBL veteran and PBL All-Star Ryan Olson to try and derail the Rebels in their bid for a 4-0 start to the season. Tonight however was anything but an All-Star start on the hill for the veteran right hander Olson as he would not make it out of the first inning, facing only three hitters and issuing two walks and then hitting third baseman Shawn Pilgaard before getting the early exit. The Athletics would turn to an even more veteran arm, this time it was Chris Middlestat who would move in from second base to try and get the Athletics out of a big time bases loaded jam with no one out. Middlestat quickly settled in striking out first baseman Craig Koughan and centre fielder Kris Kushnerick to give the Rebels two outs with the runners not moving, something that the Rebels struggled with twice in the game versus Armena the week before. It took a clutch two out single by short stop Brian Tavaroli to put the Rebels on the board as left fielder Corey Epp and catcher Chad Nelson would score to make it 2-0. One batter later right fielder Tom Shulba would drive a RBI double to make it a 3-0 game, scoring Shawn Pilgaard from second base. With a three run lead after one, the Rebels pitching and defence went into cruise control.
Right hander Barry Truss would be making his first ever Rebels start on this night, having pitched in two relief situations previously this season. Truss would control the Athletics offence all night, preventing a Bardo player to reach third base while scattering seven hits over his complete game gem. Adding to the effectiveness was his control on the night, allowing no Athletics player to reach via walk or hit by pitch and striking out six hitters. Truss was so dominant on the hill for the Rebels, that no Bardo Athletic hitter would reach third base safely during the game and only four reaching scoring position. Combine that with Bardo hitting 0 for 7 against Truss with runners in scoring position and the Athletics night was a struggle offensively as the right hander would move to 2-0 on the season with the win.
Defensively the Rebels were sharp enough to make the plays necessary to not allow the Athletics to string together any offence. The defence would record six ground outs and eight fly ball outs as Truss was dealing on the mound. Twice the Rebels would pick off a Bardo runner. The first was in the fifth inning after the Athletics first baseman would reach on a single, Truss would smoothly connect with Rebels first baseman Craig Koughan to eliminate the lead off hit before getting the next two hitters in order. The sixth inning was a similar set up with left fielder Craig Neufeld hitting a single before stealing second to get into scoring position to lead off the inning. Neufeld would be lifted for a pinch runner who fortunately for the Rebels strayed off second base too far and was promptly thrown out by Rebels catcher Chad Nelson trying to scramble back to second base for the first out of the inning before once again Truss would get back to back outs to end the inning.
The 4-0 win against the Athletics is the third win in a row for the Rebels over the rivals from Bardo and it moves the all time series to 13-8-1 for the Rebels since 2009. The Rebels will next step on the field on Thursday as they travel to Four Seasons Park in Beaumont to take on the 4-0 Angels in a early season battle for first place atop the Powerline Baseball League standings.
Injury notes: Athletics left fielder and Powerline Baseball League President Craig Neufeld would have to leave the game in the sixth inning when he would slide into second base with a stolen base, but unfortunately come up limping on the play. Neufeld would last one more pitch before having to get a pinch runner.