Rebels Offense Breaks Out

It was 366 days ago (May 26^th 2009) when the Ryley Rebels defeated the Tofield Lakers to record their first win of the 2009 season. Yesterday, May 27^th 2010, the Rebels were able to cash in 27 runs to earn their first victory in the 2010 season, beating the Lakers 27-8 on a cold night.

Former Laker Corey Epp got the start on the bump in front of the hometown crowd of 12 and RHP Paul Schole came in to close out the game as the Rebels moved to 1 – 3 on the PBL season.

The story of the night though was the Rebels offense, which scored 27 runs off of 17 hits, and capitalizing on the 15 walks handed to them by the Laker pitching staff and the 10 errors caused by the Laker defense.  Seven different Rebels scored 2 or more runs, with Dylan Solberg scoring 6 runs in 7 plate appearances for a new Rebel single game record.

3B Travis Bugge continued swinging his hot bat by going 4 for 7 with an astounding 7 RBI’s, also a new record, surpassing OF Corey Epp’s 6 RBIs versus the same Tofield Lakers at the 2009 Bardo Sport Day. The sweet swinging lefty was able to spray the ball all over the field cashing in runners in 4 of his 7 plate appearances.

1B Kevin Reinholt jumped out to the early home run lead for the Rebels, as the lefty was able to stroke a 3 run shot in the 3^rd inning into the right field trees. The home run capped a 4 hit performance by the first baseman, as he hit a single in the first, double in the second, before hitting a double and the home run in the third inning for a total of 6 bases in one inning, also a new Rebel record.

The 2009 offensive MVP for the Rebels, 2B Kyle Reinholt, brought his average up to .500 on the year, 11 for 22 with his 4 hit performance. He also extended his team leading RBI total to 11 on the season.

In the end, the Rebels offense had 24 total bases on 12 singles, 4 doubles and a home run over the six innings of play, but still left 16 runners on base, including the bases loaded in the first and second innings, when the game was still tight.

However, the Rebels started to fall into the same problem they have all season long, they began to get lazy on the base paths and in the field after the second inning. Although it is a fine line between not running up the score and getting lazy, the Rebels started to lose focus, which was also seen in the Leduc game when the Rebels climbed to 8-1 lead after 4 before giving up the game in extra innings.