The Bardo Athletics rolled into Ryley on Tuesday night and beat the Rebels by a score of 10-5 and were carried to victory by 3B Ken Braget and his 2 home runs. 

The Rebels started young RHP Joel Graumann in an emergency situation as scheduled starter RHP Dylan Solberg was experiencing soreness in the arm while replacement starter, LHP Cody Hodvestad was called to work. Graumann surrendered 5 runs in 2.00 IP in his PBL debut, while giving up 6 hits, walking 3 and striking out 1 before leaving the game for OF Kris Kushnerick.

Kushnerick was able to cruise through the Bardo 3rd and 4th innings, retiring the first 7 Athletics he saw,  before running into trouble in the 5th. With one out, Athletics SS Mike Leclair was able to flare a ball into right field in front of RF Dustin Solberg. With one on LF Peter Neufeld was able to hit a deep double off of the glove of CF Josh Lyons to put runners on second and third for Braget's first home run.

With the score now 8-5 and Kushnerick still on the mound in the 7th, LF Peter Neufeld was once again able to get on base for Braget, as his second home run of the night and fifth RBI put the Athletics up 10-5 for the win. 

A success for Kushnerick, who has thrown 12 innings in 4 days matching his inning total for all of 2009 with the Rebels (12 IP) and surpassing his entire PBL career total (7.67 IP) with the Armena Axemen, was his effectiveness against Bardo's one through five hitters. Bardo got 2 for 11 with one run scored from the top of the lineup, but a sign of a good team with depth, did the damage with the bottom part of the order. 

Rebel 2B Kyle Reinholt had a spectacular sliding stop and throw in the 7th inning to retire Athletics SS Mike Leclaire for defensive play of the day. Reinholt was also in the middle of the Rebels first double plat of the season in the 6th inning, as the Rebels went 5-4-3 to retire 2B Ryan Olsen and P Chris Middlestat. 

The Rebels offense was supplied by 2B Kyle Reinholt as he was 2 for 4 with 4 RBI's on the night, 3 of which came on a bases clearing double in the 2nd inning. 3B Kevin Reinholt also had a great game, as he was 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and a RBI in the loss. 

The concern though for team Manager Kevin Reinholt is that the Rebels offense only recorded 1 hit after the 2nd inning, after pounding Middlestat in the first 2 innings with 5 runs and 6 hits. The Rebels offense has been struggling so far in 2010, recording a 0 hit performance and a 2 hit performance against the 2009 PBL Champ, Leduc Milleteers.

As the defense was able to play solid all game, no errors were recorded by the Rebels, the offense only came out for the first third of the game before being put to bed for the rest of the night as Middlestat threw the complete game 7 hitter with 5 runs, however only 1 was earned. 

The Rebels now head out to Holden on Thursday night to play the Holden Blue Jays, a game that the Rebels will need to get up for as the bench will be short due to guys being away. Game time is 7:00pm at the Holden Recreation Grounds.