Rebels Report Rebels vs. Panthers Saturday, May 1st (9:00am) L 6-1

I am reporting today's game from beautiful Sugar Land, Texas, on the first day of May, 1999. Around the rest of the world, today is known as "May Day". For the Rebels, today was known as "Mayday!". The Rebels were in need of a little help today. They were playing shorthanded, with Kaiti, Elizabeth, and Ashley gone for the weekend. That meant we only had 2 outfielders and were missing some pretty tough batters. No crying here... the Rebels are too tough for that. On to the game report.

The Panthers got to bat first. The first batter got hit by the pitch and stole second. The next batter smacked a double to the outfield, right where we were missing a fielder. Up stepped their big third hitter. She hit a line drive right above Allie's head at first base, down the right field line. With only two outfielders, we didn't have enough to cover that kind of hit. Kathryn didn't hesitate -- she was playing right-center in our sparse outfield -- she took off towards the right field line, corralled the ball and whisked it back to the infield. Alyssa grabbed it and held the runner at third. Great hustle by Kathryn to keep the Panthers from getting a huge homerun!! The Rebels tried to keep that run from scoring. A strikeout by Alyssa and a caught fly ball by Allie right on the first base bag made the situation two outs and runner at third. Unfortunately, another Panther hit brought in that third run. Alyssa caught a popup to end the inning.

In the Rebels first inning, Allie led off with a grounder to first base. A simple putout by the first baseman brought Lisa to the plate. She went down swinging and that brought up Alyssa. Alyssa absolutely smashed one down the first base line (ok, actually it barely went three feet and hung right on the chalk). Who cares? Alyssa was on!! Then she stole second. Mary Cameron hit the ball, grounding it right to the pitcher. She made the play at first for the third out. Mayday!! We need a little help! It was 3-0, Panthers leading after one.

In the second inning, it was all Alyssa. She struck out 3, plus, to the chagrin of one of their batters, hit one Panther batter on the thigh. Ouch! The Rebels had their chances in the second inning. Brittany led off with a towering fly ball towards the second baseman that she couldn't handle. Brittany stole second base on the first pitch to Deneé. Deneé dug in and ripped a hard grounder to the shortstop. Coach Rodney wasn't paying attention as well as he should have. Brittany almost got tagged out by the shortstop. But Brittany hustled into third -- SAFE! Deneé stole second to put "ducks on the pond" with nobody out! That's an excellent situation to be in. Kristen came to the plate. A few nice cuts, but she fell on strikes. One out. Help! Kathryn stepped in and took her swings. Two outs. Mayday! OK, Allie, we need a clutch hit. Allie chased a couple high ones and then got caught looking on a questionably-low strike. Three outs. MAYDAY!! Rebels need some help!!

On to the top of the third. Allie retired the first batter on a groundout at first base. At this point, we still have a pretty close game. The top of the Panthers lineup was due up next. The first batter gotjfgjffp[s -- hey, Coach Rodney just grabbed my hands as I was typing. He says he doesn't want to hear the gruesome details. OK, Coach Rodney, I won't tell anyone that the next 3 Panther batters crushed the ball and we made about 14 errors on those 3 batters and all the runners scored. Consider it a secret. I won't tell anybody. Alyssa ended the carnage by striking out the last two hitters on full counts. It was 6-0 going to the bottom of the third.

Lisa led off the third inning with a pretty single to left field. Alyssa hit the first pitch to shortstop. The shortstop threw on to first base for the close out. Lisa hustled into third base. Way to leg it out, Lisa! Mary Cameron wasn't too original -- she tried the same thing, a grounder to the shortstop. Once again, the shortstop threw out Mary Cameron at first base. Lisa scored though!! Yea!! Brittany fell on strikes to end the third. But we did score one run to close the game to 6-1.

In the fourth inning, the Rebels held firm. Two strikeouts by Alyssa, plus a groundout play from Alyssa to Kristen (at first base) kept the Panthers at bay. On to the Rebels last chance. We need a little help here! Deneé led off with a grounder to the right side of the infield. The first baseman made the play herself. One out. Kristen then cracked a hit, but right at the pitcher. Another easy putout. Mayday!! That brought Kathryn to the plate. What's this? Coach Rodney is calling for the old 2-out, down-by-5, what-the-heck-let's-bunt-anyway play! Kathryn dug in and squared around. She had good form and even better eyesight. She worked the count to 3-1 and then took her chances against the sometimes-erratic-but-you-try-to-do-better Coach Bob. He must have thought he was Billy Wagner, because he hummed two strikes right past Kathryn. Game over. Rebels fall 6-1.

Someone remind me next time that the Rebels don't like early morning games. The Rebels, bless their hearts, seemed a little out of sync today. It was probably because we were missing our 3 teammates.

Coach Rodney looked to first and last innings for his Rebel of the day. Kathryn's excellent hustle in an almost-empty outfield to prevent a home run in the first inning, plus her bring-it-on-I'm-gonna-bunt attitude in the last inning made her today's Homer's Hero. On a day when everyone seemed to be behind by a step or two, Kathryn was always in the game. Way to go, Kathryn!!

Your faithful Rebel Reporter,
Major Homer K. Fielding