SPORTSDAYS HANGOVER, REBELS WIN LACKLUSTER GAME IN BARDO
Posted June 25, 2015
It was quiet in Bardo….a little too quiet for a night of baseball as barely a sound was made during most of the 3-2 Rebels win on Thursday night. After a great, but long weekend, of baseball and slopitch at the 2015 Ryley Sports Days/Curtis Stensrud Memorial Tournaments, the Rebels were low energy and low enthusiasm for the last meeting of the season between them and the Bardo Athletics. With the boys from Bardo’s season all but over a month ago, they were sitting in seventh place with a 2-10-1 record heading into Thursday’s game, the two teams had very little to play for other than pride. The Rebels were still in the hunt for the PBL Pennant while the A’s would have the opportunity to put a serious wrench in Ryley’s efforts to win their first PBL Pennant in modern franchise history.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | L | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ryley Rebels | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 9 |
| Bardo Athletics | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 9 |
Win - Shawn Pilgaard (1-0) Loss - Sean Melanson
On the hill for the Rebels was right hander Shawn Pilgaard, looking for his first win of the 2015 season with Rebels, while the Athletics countered with Sean Melanson. Pilgaard was a big time playoff performer for the Rebels in the 2014 season, but due to some bad breaks this season, was yet to notch a win despite pitching effectively but not receiving the type of run support needed to put him into the win column. Thursday night’s tilt with the Athletics was no different for Pilgaard and the Rebels offence as Melanson would work over six innings allowing only five hits and three runs. In what has seemingly been the case for most of the season with the A’s, it was the defence that made some bad decisions that would end up costing the team a chance at their first win against a team not named the Roadrunners in 2015.
In the first inning right fielder Corey Epp would lead off the game with a walk before promptly stealing second base to put himself into scoring position for catcher Chad Nelson. Epp would come in to score a couple of pitches into the at bat when Nelson would hit a ground ball through the legs of Athletics second baseman Rob Berrecloth to make it a 1-0 game for the Rebels. Nelson would advance to second on the play after right fielder Jeremy Copeland would struggle getting the ball into the infield allowing the fleet footed catcher to trot into second on the ground ball. With no outs, Melason would settle down striking out Shawn Pilgaard and Craig Koughan before getting Brian Tavaroli to ground out to end the inning and the early threat.
The shaky Athletics defence would rear its ugly head again in the top of the second inning when Rebels centre fielder Tyson Schielke would leg out pop up which was headed for no man’s land in the triangle of third base, short stop and the pitcher. With a mighty “Back off I got it” call by Athletics third baseman Ken Braget, short stop Chris Middlestat and pitcher Sean Melanson would cease pursuit only to watch the ball bounce off the palm of Braget’s glove putting Schielke on base. Once again the Rebels though were not fully able to capitalize on the poor fielding as a stolen base and a ground out would put Schielke at third base with two out, but once again Melanson would get out of the jam a big strikeout, this time against Kyle Reinholt to keep the game at 1-0.
It was almost the same story in the top of the fourth inning for the Rebels as with one out Schielke would once again be the benefactor of an error to Athletics third baseman Ken Braget, this time on a late throw which sailed on first baseman Chris Warren well after the fleet footed centre fielder reached the base, allowing Schielke to turn the infield single into an extra base on the error. With one out and runners at first and second after second baseman Tyler Helgeland worked a walk from Melanson, the right hander would settle down getting the Athletics out of a tough spot with another strikeout of first baseman Kyle Reinholt and a pop up by right fielder Corey Epp to end the threat. The ability of Melanson to pick up his defence again and again finally paid off for the Athletics in the home half of the fifth inning.
With Pilgaard holding the Athletics to five hits through the first four innings and only allowing one walk, he looked to be in cruise control on the fifth inning. A lead off error charged to short stop Brian Tavaroli would put his counter part Chris Middlestat on first base before a single to Athletics centre fielder and Powerline Baseball League President Craig Neufeld would put runners at first and second with no one out. After striking out third baseman Ken Braget for the first out, Pilgaard would walk second baseman Rob Berrecloth after narrowly catching him looking on a tight pitch. The tough walk was big as right fielder Jeremy Copeland would easily score Middlestat on a single into right field to tie the game at 1-1. Pitcher Sean Melanson would give himself the lead with a RBI fielder’s choice to score Neufeld before Pilgaard would get left fielder Pete Neufeld with a strikeout for the third time in the game. The rough inning for the Rebels now saw them trail 2-1 heading into the top of the sixth inning where they would try to wake up the bats, but instead of the bats awaking, it was the sloppy defence of the Athletics that allowed the comeback to happen.
Left fielder Kris Kushnerick would lead off the inning with a walk against Melanson before being eliminated on a fielder’s choice by centre fielder Tyson Schielke for the first out of the inning. With one out Schielke would collect his second stolen base of the night to get into scoring position with one out, trailing 2-1, when the Athletics would throw away the lead, literally. With second baseman Tyler Helgeland up to bat, Melanson would spin and would catch Schielke not looking at second base for what could have been an easy pick off. The move was so quick and unexpected that second baseman Rob Berrecloth was also slow reacting. The delay caused Melanson to throw the pick off attempt to where Berrecloth was standing as opposed to where he was going, meaning the ball would roll into the right centre cabbage patch allowing the speedy Schielke to round third and score as the throw by centre fielder Craig Neufeld was cut off by pitcher Sean Melanson and too late to home plate. Game tied 2-2.
The Rebels weren’t done yet, as second baseman Tyler Helgeland would earn a walk from Melanson to set up a textbook sacrifice bunt from first baseman Kyle Reinholt to get into scoring position. Once again the Athletics would have a costly error, this time throwing away the game as shortstop Chris Middlestat would pull first baseman Chris Warren off the bag on a Corey Epp ground ball. It was the second time in the inning that Warren would be pulled off the bag and collide with a Rebels runner. The errant throw would allow Helgeland to score all the way from second base to give the Rebels the lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning in what was an ugly end to an ugly season for the Athletics.
The win puts the Rebels at 22 points on the season, two points behind he first place Beaumont Angels who were 13-10 victors over the Armena Royals on Thursday night. While the Angels season is done with a 12-2 record, the Rebels sit a 11-2 with one more game, a July 2 make up game versus the Leduc Milleteers in Ryley.