Rebels Patient vs A’s For Win In Opener

In a drastic shift of strategy, the Ryley Rebels played patient baseball on Tuesday night to secure their first season opener win since re-joining the PBL in 2009. While only collecting a total of 6 hits, the Rebels were able to score 9 runs versus the shaky Athletics pitching staff on the back of 9 walks and 4 hit batters.

RHP Corey Epp was given the ball for the 2011 opener and put in a solid 3.00 innings of work before turning the ball over to the bullpen. RHP Craig Koughan was able to hold the Athletics at bay long enough to collect his second win of the young season by posting his second win agains the Athletics in 5 days. RHP Curt Stensrud blazed through the 3 Athletics he faced to close out the game in the sixth by striking out 2 of the 3 batters.

While the offence was slow in collecting hits, the Athletics were not giving much to the Rebels to hit. RHP Ray Lehman started the game for the Athletics against his former team, surrendering 5 runs in the first inning after the Rebels sent 9 batters to the plate. The Rebels were looking to capitalize on a mental error by the veteran Lehman to continue the rally in the first when 2B Brian Tavaroli caught Lehman in the full wind-up. Half way through the wind up Lehman stopped and picked Tavaroli off despite the clear balk. The umpiring crew, battling the setting sun, called Tavaroli out and the rally was squashed.

The Athletics then turned to newcomer RHP Mike Magowen for the third, fourth and fifth innings. The fastball/curveball pitcher struggled to find the strike zone all night, walking an additional 5 of the 18 Rebels he faced.

CF Kris Kushnerick and C Bryan Toles each collected 2 RBI’s a piece while P Craig Koughan scored twice to the lead the Rebels offensively. SS Dylan Solberg reached base 3 times in his 4 plate appearances, one hit by pitch and two walks.

While the winter was not kind to the Rebels in terms of conditioning, they were able to swipe 4 bases from the Athletics over the course of the shortened game.

With the Rebels being selective at the plate and the quickly setting sun, the umpiring crew informed the teams in the fifth that one more inning would be played to end the game.

The Rebels will now face the Holden Blue Jays (1-0) who are coming off of an impressive home win versus the back to back defending PBL Champion Leduc Milleteers. The Rebels finished 1-2 versus the Holden Blue Jays in the 2010 season before eliminating the Jays in the first round of the playoffs.

No word on who will start for the Rebels, but fans might see a pitching by committee this early in the season with multiple pitchers getting innings while the arms get conditioned.

First pitch is scheduled for 7:00pm at the Ryley Ball Park.

Be sure to follow the Ryley Rebels all season long with updated stats and stories at the official Ryley Rebels website http://www.rteamsite.com/baseball/ryleyrebels/home.aspx