Around The PBL: June 4 - June 7

The first major controversary and debate raged across the league over the last week and finally came to a conclusion on Monday with a league vote. The league teams voted 5-3 in favour of keeping the Sherwood Park Athletics' scheule intact and applying forfeits through the end of the season. 

With the ruling behind us now, everyone can get back to focusing on baseball as the league heads into the final month of regular season play. Heading into action this week fans are excited to see the Royals, Blue Jays and Athletics fighing a close race for the pennant while in the middle of the pack the Expos, Roadrunners and Braves are scrapping for the final playoff spot and Wild Card Game berths. 

Monday June 3

Holden Blue Jays - 11

Edmonton Expos - 7

It was the first meeting between the two teams this season and this game would go to the Blue Jays. Randall Ziegler would get the start for the Jays while the Expos would counter with Gary LeBlanc. Ziegler would pitch well through the first few innings allowing the Jays to build a sizeable but would run into trouble as the Expos chipped away to quickly erase the lead in the span of one inning. Zak Lang was once again a force at the plate for the Jays finishing the night 4 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored. Player manager Steve Hrabec would be the player of the game for Holden going 3 for 4 at the plate with a pair of RBIs and also coming in to secure the relief win for the Jays, pitching a solid three innings while his offence found their stride again. The at bat of the night goes to Luc Riopel of the Edmonton Expos who would battle Hrabec for eleven pitches in the bottom of the seventh inning before hitting a two RBI double to the opposite field. Most of the pitches came with two strikes as Hrabec got up early in the at bat but Riopel would not go down quietly fouling off good pitch after good pitch until he got one he liked. The win for the Jays gets them back in the win column after suffering their first loss of the season last week to the Armena Royals. The Expos once again find themselves unable to pull together a winning streak as they alternated wins and losses through the eight games they have played so far.  

Tuesday June 4

Armena Royals - 10

Tofield Braves - 4

The Royals remain undefeated after the went on the road and collected their seventh win in a row to start the 2019 season with a convincing 10-4 win over the Tofield Braves. Ian Sherbaniuk would get the complete game win for the the Royals, throwing seven innings allowing only five hits while striking out five. Sherbaniuk would shut the door on the Braves himself, retiring the final seven hitters in a row. Offensively, Armena would come out strong against the Braves young pitcher Dustin Huebert working three walks, including two walks with two outs which were followed by back to back RBI singles to Liam Gregor and David Ritz, to make it 4-0 after the top of the first inning. Both Gregor and Ritz would finish the night 3 for 4 with a RBI, collecting half of the teams twelve total hits. The Royals would earn a total of seven walks on the night and steal six bases from under the Braves noses. Armena would collect three extra base hits on the night with RBI doubles from Doug Morris, Zenan Sherbaniuk and Devin Varga. For the Braves, shortstop Dylan Solberg would connect on his second home run of the season driving the solo shot over the fence in the bottom of the first for the biggest hit of the night for Tofield. Youngster Shaye Yoder would leadoff the Braves bottom of the fifth inning with a double followed by a Huebert single. Both would eventually come around to score on a RBI ground out and an error for Tofield's final two runs of the evening.  

Win - Ian Sherbaniuk (7.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 K, 2 BB)

Loss - Dustin Huebert (5.0 IP, 10 H, 9 ER, 3 K, 6 BB)

Camrose Roadrunners - 6 

Rosalind Athletics - 9

Game details were not available. 

Wednesday June 5

Tofield Braves - 0 

Camrose Axemen - 11

Axemen pitcher John Robbins would pitch a five inning, complete game no-hitter on Wednesday night as Camrose would shut out the Braves in a mercy rule shortened game. Robbins' no-hitter is the first in the PBL since May 29, 2015 when Steven Pahl would toss his against the Sherwood Park Athletics in a five inning mercy win as well. No other game details were made available. These two teams will finish their mid-season home and home with a game at the Tofield Sports Grounds on Tuesday June 11.  

Thursday June 6 

Holden Blue Jays (5-1-1) at Camrose Roadrunners (3-4)

Edmonton Expos (4-4) at Armena Royals (7-0)