Royal Pumping of Rebels

The Ryley Rebels fell to the host Armena Royals on Thursday night, by a score of 11-3, but the score looks closer then it really was. The Rebels easily came out with the poorest level of motivation of the year, possibly emotionally drained from the come from behind victory against the Athletics two days before.

Joel “Pumps” Boettger kept the Rebels off the score board until the top of the 7th inning with a masterful, 5-hit performance. Although he wasn’t over powering by striking guys out, he was hitting his spots and getting ground balls for his defense to take care of.

The Rebels started RHP Corey Epp who only lasted 1.2 innings after some control issues and some key hits by the Royals before making way for RHP Dylan Solberg. RHP Josh Lyons made his pitching debut in the 2009 campaign throwing 2 good innings to close out the game.

Tempers began to flare up in the Rebels dugout as the frustration began to set in from not getting good wood on the ball to defensive blunders and errors combined with a couple of the Royals stealing bases and pushing for extra runs while the score was 11-0.

“I think Banack and Boettger had a talk with a couple of their players right away and apologized to us in the dugout so it calmed our guys down,” said Rebels C Bryan Toles.

A weird twist to the game saw the umpire call the game from behind the pitcher as opposed to behind home plate, as Armena’shome plate umpire called in sick. Armena tried to get him behind the plate by offering a base ump from their players or fans but the umpire had no interest in going behind the plate.

“I think it was weird for both teams, but by no means did it dictate to outcome of the game” said Rebel OF Kris Kushnerick “It is like that pitching view in the video games where you look from behind home plate, you know the one that no one ever uses because you can’t judge pitch location, break and speed very well, I imagined it was like that.”

The Rebels look to get the offense kick started with some exhibition games at the Roadrunners tournament over the weekend before they take on the last place Tofield Lakers and the first place Camrose Roadrunners next week in PBL action.

Posted on June 5, 2009 by Kris Kushnerick