Playoff chances slipping away for Rebellion after loss
Rebellion manager Craig Montvidas, shown in this file photo, said his team is “relying on other people” to make the National Pro Fastpitch softball league playoffs after a 5-4 loss to Chicago Sunday at Consol Energy Park.
This loss registered a 10 on the Ouch-O-Meter.
The Pennsylvania Rebellion needed a win over the Chicago Bandits, a team they are chasing for the fourth and final playoff berth in the National Pro Fastpitch softball league championship series.
But they couldn’t hold on to leads at two different spots during the game and eventually lost a 5-4 decision to the Bandits in the ninth inning Sunday afternoon at Consol Energy Park.
With nine games remaining, the Rebellion are 14-27 and 5 1/2 games behind the fourth-place Bandits (20-22). The longest winning streak by the Rebellion this season is two games, accomplished twice.
“If we had won, the magic number would have been four to catch them at least,” said Rebellion head coach Craig Montvidas. “Now, there’s nine games left so any combination of three (eliminates us). It’s still mathematically possible. Stranger things have happened in sports. Now, we are relying on other people and when you do that, it doesn’t end up well.”
Interestingly, the Rebellion are fourth in the NPF in hitting with a .255 average and third in pitching with a 3.82 ERA.
“What hurt was this was like a boxing match, and we had them on the ropes and had them on the ropes, and we couldn’t get the knockout punch,” said Montvidas. “They hung around and that was the difference. Sometimes, you don’t hold a lead – and that happens – but we should have knocked them out. That was the tough part.”
The Rebellion led 3-1 after four innings and 4-3 after five. But Chicago tied the game in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly to right field by Amanda Kamekona off reliever Dallas Escobedo and won it in the top of the seventh on a single to left field by Danielle Zymkowitz that scored Brittany Cervantes.
“This was huge,” said Zymkowitz. “We were on a five-game road trip so we won three out of five. Our main goal is making it to the playoffs.”
The Rebellion actually had some bad luck in the inning when Cervantes’ fly ball to short left field landed just in front of a lunging Alexa Peterson after grazing her glove.
“You always look at the last inning because that’s the freshest, but it’s the things earlier in the game that cost us,” said Montvidas. “We just didn’t execute.”
Rebellion starter Amanda Kramer pitched four strong innings but couldn’t get out of the fifth. She walked Sammy Marshall and hit Natalie Hernandez with a pitch to start the inning. Jill Barrett’s bunt single loaded the bases and Marshall scored on a sacrifice fly by Cervantes. Kamekona drove in Hernandez with a solid single to left field. Emma Johnson relied Kramer and struck out Zymkowitz.
The Rebellion took a 3-1 lead in the fourth when Stacey Porter laced a single to the gap in left-centerfield that scored Whitney Arion, who opened the inning with a single, and Victoria Hayward, who got on by an error.
“At this end of the season, wins are critical for us,” said Porter. “The more losses, the further away we get from making the top four. It was tough to (lose). We let them back in and could hold them off in the end.”
The Rebellion are off for four days before their final homestand of the season, a three-game series with Dallas. They end the regular season with six road games – three each in Houston and Dallas. … The Rebellion had two runners caught attempting to steal a base, bringing the season total to 43 steals out of 55 tries.