Rebellion win, keep playoff hopes alive
The light of playoff hopes still flickers in the dugout of the Pennsylvania Rebellion, thanks to a 3-0 victory over the Dallas Charge Tuesday night at Consol Energy Park.
The Rebellion snapped a four-game losing streak in front of 952 fans with one part pitching, one part clutch hitting and one part defense.
They are chasing the Charge for the fourth and final playoff spot in the National Pro Fastpitch Championship Series. The Rebellion are 10-28, four games behind the Charge (14-24) in the five-team league and have nine games remaining, plus the completion of a suspended game against Akron as part of a doubleheader Aug. 7. The 10 wins surpass last season’s total by one and a chance for No. 11 comes in a rare morning game against Akron (10:30 a.m.).
“This was huge,” said catcher Kristyn Sandberg, who drove in one of the Rebellion’s two runs in the fourth inning. “We’re still in the race and any win helps.”
Emma Johnson, who was nursing a hamstring injury from 10 days ago, gutted out four shutout innings before Haylie Wagner came in for the final three. The duo allowed a combined four hits, struck out two and walked one.
“I felt pretty good out there,” said Johnson, who threw 69 pitches. “We definitely needed this one under our belts for the playoffs.”
The Rebellion have scored three or more runs only twice in the last 10 games and have a team batting average of .205. But they pushed across two in the fourth inning after Dallas starter Lauren Haeger retired the first nine batters.
Olivia Watkins laid down a bunt for a single to start the fourth and second baseman Haruna Sakamoto tried to sacrifice her to second. Dallas third baseman Nadia Taylor tried to get Watkins at second but the throw was late.
Alexa Peterson walked to load the bases and Sandberg drove in Watkins with a groundout to third. One out later, pinch-hitter Mandy Ogle singled to left field to score Sakamoto but Peterson was thrown out at the plate trying to score.
“We had to take the chance,” said Rebellion manager Craig Montvidas of the gamble with Peterson. “We aren’t scoring a lot of runs.”
The Rebellion made it 3-0 in the sixth when Watkins opened the inning with an infield single and was sacrificed to second by Sakamoto. Right field Alexa Peterson hit a towering fly that dropped over the head of Kaylie Lahners about two feet from the left field fence and bounced over for a ground-rule double that scored Watkins.
“I thought it would be either a fly ball that she could camp under or it would be over the fence,” said Peterson. “They have deep fences here. I have one home run this season but if the fences were four feet closer, I would have 10.”
Dallas threatened only once, in the fifth inning, putting runners on second and third with one out. But Wagner, who relieved Johnson to start the inning, got center fielder Eri Yamada to pop out to shortstop and Haeger to ground out to third base.
“I knew I would be the first reliever,” said Wagner, who spent most of time at the University of Michigan as a starter. “My job is to get outs. This was a huge win, a momentum builder. It could help us get into the championship series.”
The Rebellion played terrific defense. Whitney Arion made a fine play on a short-hop at shortstop to throw out Taylor Thom in the third inning. Sakamoto made a great stop on a grounder by Kaitlyn Richardson for the first out of the seventh inning and Brittney Lindley did the same on the next batter, pinch-hitter Nicole Morgan. Wagner ended the game by stopping a come-backer to the circle and throwing out Thom.
“I was really happy with our attitude,” said Montvidas. “We lost a heart-breaker the night before (3-2 in nine innings) but we were ready to play tonight.”
Notes
Today’s Akron game will be followed by a doubleheader baseball game with the Wild Things taking on River City. … The Rebellion have three road games at Chicago, four home games with Akron, and finish the regular season with two games at Akron.