The Ryley Rebels handed the Camrose Roadrunners their second loss of the season on Tuesday night by beating them 16-13 in front of 14 fans who were treated to an offensively minded game by both teams. The Rebels went up 8-1 after the first inning and even though the Roadrunners had a couple of big innings, 5 runs in the third and 6 runs in the seventh, were able to hang on.

The Roadrunners scored 1 in the top of the first only to see the Rebels score 8 in the home half as the Rebels saw 13 batters come up to bat against Roadrunner RHP Hans Haugen. The second inning was the only inning in which neither team scored a run, but Camrose came out swinging in the top half of the third by scoring 5 runs and chasing Rebel starter RHP Shane Metrunic from the game. With the game now 8-6 Rebels and with LHP Darcy Grandberg on the mound for the Rebels, the offense came through in the bottom half of the inning scoring another 2 runs to push the score to 10-6 after 3. Granberg pitched well for the fourth inning giving up only 1 run, and closer RHP Corey Epp came in to throw a solid 5th and 6th inning before Camrose struck hard in the top of the 7th. With the score 16-7 going into the 7th Camrose rallied for 6 runs off of Epp before the bleeding stopped and the game was over.

Offensively for the Rebels, Corey Epp led the way going 1 for 2 with 5 runs scored, that is correct, 1 for 2 with 5 runs scored. Epp reached base in all 5 plate appearances through every way possible, a walk, an error, a sac bunt with an error, another walk and finally a single. LF Kris Kushnerick and 2B Kyle Reinholt combined went 6 for 10, with 4 doubles, 4 runs scored and 8 runs batted in. The Ryley Rebels hit for 7 doubles, a new team record, 4 of which came in one inning (the first) another team record. As a team the Rebels knocked out 15 hits and 9 out of the 10 Rebels scored at least one run and had at least one hit. 

The Rebels hope to ride the wave of offense into next week as they have a make it or break it week, playing Armena twice (June 16 & 18 both in Ryley). Next week could very well determine which one of the Rebels or Royals make the PBL Playoffs come July.