Around The League May 28 – May 31

This week in Powerline Baseball League action will see a total of eight games played over three days as teams look to separate themselves in the standings. The PBL will also see a historic game played in Vegreville on Tuesday night with the league’s first ever action in the town between the Holden Blue Jays and Edmonton Expos.

Monday May 28

1 – Leduc Milleteers (2-3)

3 – Camrose Roadrunners (1-3)

Behind a strong pitching performance by Roadrunners ace Lance Zimmer, Camrose was able to break a 10 game losing streak against the Milleteers dating back to the 2013 season. It is the first time since 2011, when the current Roadrunners team emerged, that they have been able to beat the Milleteers in Camrose. Heading into Monday night’s game the Milleteers had a commanding 13-2 record against the Roadrunners with Camrose winning the season series 2-1 in 2012 with a pair of wins over the Milleteers in Leduc. The win is the Roadrunners and Zimmer’s first of the season as Camrose looks to claw its way up the tightly packed PBL standings. The Roadrunners now sit three games back of the Armena Royals and Edmonton Expos, who were both idle on this night, and only a game back of the current fourth place Rosalind Athletics. The Roadrunners will head to Tofield to take on the 2-3 Braves on Tuesday night in their first meeting of the season while Leduc will host the 0-3 Sherwood Park Athletics. The Milleteers defeated the A’s 12-2 on May 17 in their previous meeting, which was a five inning mercy win.

Tuesday May 29

0 – Sherwood Park Athletics (0-4)

10 – Leduc Milleteers (3-4)

The Leduc Milleteers hit the halfway point in their season schedule in style on Tuesday night as veteran right hander Steve Pahl would pitch the Milleteers to a five inning no-hitter against the Sherwood Park Athletics. It is the second time this season that the Milleteers have blown out the Athletics with Pahl on the hill. On June 17 the Milleteers would defeat the Athletics 12-2 in five innings with another great Pahl pitching performance. The win keeps the Milleteers in striking distance of the playoffs in a tight race between five teams for the final two playoff spots.

Milleteers pitcher Steve Pahl would throw a 5 inning no-hitter

4 – Camrose Roadrunners (1-4)

12 – Tofield Braves (3-3)

The Braves climbed back to .500 on Tuesday night with a convincing win over the Camrose Roadrunners. Fresh off their first win of the season on Monday night, the Roadrunners were no match for the Braves and pitcher Sean Melanson. The right handed pitcher from Tofield would pick up his second win of the season, getting out of  a couple of jams with minimal damage to secure the win. The loss breaks the momentum of the Roadrunners would will need to string together some wins to climb back into the playoff race.

1 – Camrose Axemen (2-2)

7 – Rosalind Athletics (3-2)

A’s pitching would hold the Axemen to only two hits on the night as the offence would capitalize on a few Axemen errors at key times to take the season series. The win also moves the A’s into sole possession of third place in the standings. The lone Axemen run would come in the top of the first inning when catcher Zach Willms would drive in first baseman John Robbins with two out. The final hit for the Axemen was a one out double by left fielder Matt Andreassen, he would eventually get stranded at third in the inning. Steve Enright would lead off the game with a single and eventually come around to score as he would finish 1-3 on the night with a walk. Outfielder Brett Yuha continues his extra base hit exploration of the Camrose Axemen this season with another double to finish the game 1-3 with a run scored and a walk. Axemen pitcher Zach Bailey would take the loss with the Athletics scoring one run in the first inning, two in the second inning and finally four runs in the fifth inning to put the game away.

Ryan Yuha would score a pair of runs in the A’s victory.

0 – Edmonton Expos (4-1)

6 – Holden Blue Jays (2-2)

The first game in Vegreville for the Powerline Baseball League would see the “hometown” Holden Blue Jays shutout the Edmonton Expos 6-0. Jays pitcher Ryan Walker would capitalize on a eight man lineup from the Expos toss a complete game for the win and striking out six Edmonton hitters. Grayson Suprovich would lead the offence going 2-4 with a pair of stolen bases with Colton Ziegler going 1-2 with a pair of walks and Zak Lang finishing the night 1-3. Ziegler would have a double and score two runs while Lang would get hit by a pitch and knock in two RBIs for the Jays. The Expos will hang on to the season series after defeating the Jays 7-0 on Opening Day, should these two teams find themselves in a tie at seasons end.

Thursday May 31

2 – Sherwood Park Athletics (0-5)

8 – Edmonton Expos (5-1)

A 1-0 game would get blown wide open in the fifth inning by the Edmonton Expos when they would send ten hitters to the plate scoring six runs on multiple extra base hits that would eventually lead to a 8-2 victory over the Sherwood Park Athletics. Anthony Qaqish would earn the win for the Expos over his former team from 2017. The game would grind away in the final few innings with both having pitchers on the hill throwing knuckleballs…a rare occurrence to see duelling knuckleballers in the PBL. The Expos would bounce back after a road loss on Tuesday night in Vegreville while the Athletics slip to a five games back of first place and two and a half back of a playoff spot.

Anthony Qaqish helps his own cause with a RBI extra base hit.

2 – Rosalind Athletics (3-3)

5 – Armena Royals (5-0)

The Armena Royals continue their astonishing bounce back season after a disappointing 3-11 2017 campaign with their fifth win of the year on Thursday night. Armena would snap a three game losing streak to the Rosalind Athletics dating back to the two teams 2016 PBL Championship Series, with a 5-2 win at Anniversary Park. Few details are known about what is contributing to the turnaround by the Royals and how they are winning, but whatever it is, it has been working well for them this season. Information on the game was unavailable.

The A’s were unable to halt the red hot Royals

1 – Tofield Braves (3-4)

2 – Holden Blue Jays (3-2)

Baseball fans were treated to a pitching duel between Braves right-hander Corey Epp and Jays left-hander Kyle Muzechka on Thursday night as the two teams would face each other for the first time since Holden ended Tofield’s season in game three of their Semi-Final Series last season. Both pitchers would allow six hits each, Epp striking out four and Muzechka striking out eight with both throwing complete games in a match up that took roughly an hour and a half. An unearned run on a pair of Braves errors would end up being the difference with the Jays winning 2-1. While Muzechka was keeping the Braves in check from the mound, he was also contributing with the bat going 2-3 with a RBI and a stolen base. Jays slugger Zak Lang would also finish 2-3 on the night, also picking up a stolen base. Braves pitcher Corey Epp would finish 1-3 with the lone run for his team with Braves outfielder Mark Lawson driving in Epp in his 2-3 game. The Jays now hold a three game win streak over the Tofield Braves going back to last season’s playoff series. It is also the fifth time in six meetings between the two teams that the home team has emerged victorious. With the win the Jays took sole possession of 3rd place in the tightly packed PBL standings.

Kyle Muzechka would pitch a complete game for the Jays