Sloppy play gives Rebel bats chance to break out

For the second consecutive game, the Armena Royals made a fistful of errors that eventually ended up running them out of pitching arms as the Ryley Rebels crushed them 17-8 Thursday night in Armena.

Adam Johnson got the start on the hill for Armena.  He worked his way out of the first inning and the Royals took a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by outfielder Dean Prpic.

An error in the second led to two runs before three more blunders helped the Rebels stake out an 8-1 lead after two.

The Royals offense finally found some holes in the Rebels defense in the middle innings, but it was a solid outing for the most part. Brian Tavoroli pitched a complete game in a rare outing and was assisted by two double plays as well as a game-ending triple play.

For Armena, with the defense making Johnson work extra hard with runners on base, the Rebels ran him off midway through the third inning. Dean Prpic would come in for the next three innings and things started to slow down. The Royals chipped back to make it 11-8 and it seemed as if whomever batted last was going to maybe win.

But two hit balls to first that could have been outs resulted in an error and a missed call on a close play that let Ryley score two more and pretty much put the game out of reach. They’d add four more in the seventh before completing the triple play to cap off a disappointing day for the Royals.

Armena now gets a week off to lick their wounds and rest up some arms. They face Camrose next Thursday (May 23) before getting another week off as they face the Leduc Milleteers in a rematch of last year’s final on May 30.