Jul 12, 2015 4 min read

Talk about slumps.

The Pennsylvania Rebellion are coming into a critical four-game series with the Dallas Charge locked into a losing streak that stretched to 13 games after a 3-0 loss to the USSSA Pride Sunday at Consol Energy Park.

Not only did the Rebellion lose four straight games to the Pride, they we no hit by Cat Osterman and finished the series hitting just .145 (14 of 96). In addition, the Rebellion have a scoreless streak that runs back to the first inning of Game 1 of this series, a span of 27 innings. And they have just one run in the past 34 innings.

Even when things went right for the Rebellion in yesterday’s loss, it turned out wrong. When second baseman Haruna Sakamoto laced a shot into the gap in left-center field with shortstop Whitney Arion on first base after hitting a single to lead off the seventh inning, it appeared the Rebellion were going to break the scoreless streak. But the ball hopped over the fence for a ground rule double, putting runners at second and third.

The Pride brought in star reliever Jordan Taylor and her 0.38 ERA and she got first basemen Alisa Goler to pop out to center to end the game.

“We are staying as positive as we can possibly be,” said Rebellion manager Craig Montvidas. “No one is pointing fingers. We have zero issues. I wanted the scoreboard to stay on a while longer (for the postgame meeting on the field) because I wanted to show them that we had seven hits and they had six. We hit the ball better than they did. But they had three runs and we had none. The difference was execution.”

What Montvidas meant was that in a crucial two-run fourth inning for the Pride, third baseman Andrea Duran put down a pretty sacrifice bunt after Brigette Del Ponte and Chelsea Goodacre singled. Second baseman Shelby Pendley then hit a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Del Ponte and sent pinch-runner Breja’e Washington to third base. Gionna DiSalvatore singled to right to score Washington.

In a similar situation in the fourth inning for the Rebellion, Alexa Peterson tried to sacrifice two runners over but popped her bunt attempt back to the pitcher. Third baseman Brittney Lindley would later single but she hit the ball so hard that pinch-runner Cheyenne Cordes had to stop at third base.

Courtney Senas struck out to end the threat.

The top four hitters in the Rebellion lineup went 9-for-47 in this series, a .191 average. The bottom five went 4-for-45 for an .088 average.

“There were some things we did well,” said Montvidas. “I was happy with the pitching. We brought in Dagmar (Bloeming) Saturday and Allyson (Fournier) and they did well for not pitching in a while.”

The Pride got 6 2/3 innings from starter Hannah Rogers before she tired. Rogers threw 124 pitches, struck out three and walked two. They also got all the runs needed when catcher Chelsea Goodacre hit an 0-1 pitch off starter Haylie Wagner for a solo home run in the second inning. It was the first home run of her National Pro Fastpitch career.

“It was a riseball,” said Goodacre. “I nearly had two others but I got robbed (by good catches at the fence).”

Alexa Peterson made one of those catches yesterday, snagging a fly ball by Goodacre before crashing into the right field fence and tumbling to the turf.

“I made it look a lot harder than it was,” said Peterson.

The Rebellion take a 5-23 record into the series against fourth-place Dallas, which is 9-16 and holds a 5 1/2-game lead over the Rebellion. Only the top four of the five teams in the league play in the NPF Championship Series.

“We talked about that possibly being the turning point to this season,” said Montvidas. “It gives us motivation and makes us ready to go. The reality is a split is not moving us any closer. We need to take three of four or four of four. If they win the series, it will be hard to catch them.”