Aug 9, 2015 4 min read

Scoreboard watching sometimes means wishing bad things on your opponents. But that’s the position the Pennsylvania Rebellion found themselves in Sunday afternoon, following another offensively frustrating effort that led to a 2-0 loss to the Akron Racers.

Lisa Norris pitched the second straight one-hitter for Akron. Sarah Pauly and Rachele Fico combined on the one-hitter in Saturday’s 6-0 win.

The Rebellion (14-32) remained alive for a playoff berth because the Dallas Charge fell to the Chicago Bandits, 3-0, last night. Dallas (16-30) holds a two-game lead over the Rebellion with two games remaining for the fourth and final playoff berth in the National Pro Fastpitch Championship Series, which gets under way Friday in Hoover, Ala.

The Rebellion travel to Akron for games today and Tuesday night, each 7 p.m. starts. Dallas hosts Chicago Monday and Tuesday. Any combination of a Rebellion loss or Dallas win clinches the berth for the Charge. The two teams split their 12-game series.

Interestingly, there is a debate over the wording of the tiebreaker used if the Charge and Rebellion finish with identical records of 16-32. The second tiebreaker – record against “the next best team” – could be read to mean either Akron, which is in third place, or the defending champion USSSA Pride, which leads the league.

Rebellion manager Craig Montvidas said he emailed the league for clarification but had not received an answer as of yesterday afternoon. A message left with commissioner Cheri Kempf was not immediately returned.

Either way, the Rebellion will need a better offensive effort in Akron to even reach that situation. The Rebellion have been shut out the last two games and managed just one hit in each.

“Two games, two hits, no runs in 14 innings,” said Montvidas. “We’re not hitting, so we have got be creative.”

The Rebellion had two great opportunities to score Sunday, loading the bases with one out in the first and getting two on with one out in the sixth.

In the first inning, left fielder Brittney Lindley walked, moved to second base after second baseman Haruna Sakamota walked and those runners moved up when catcher Kristyn Sandberg was hit by a pitch one out later. First baseman Alisa Goler lofted a fly ball to center that was too shallow to score Lindley and designated hitter Sammie Garcia struck out on a half-hearted swing.

In the sixth, right fielder Alexa Peterson got an infield single for the Rebellion’s first hit of the game and was sacrificed to second base by Sandberg, who played despite a sore shoulder from diving for a foul ball in Saturday’s game. Goler walked and was pinch-run for by Olivia Watkins.

Mandy Ogle, who had hits in her last two pinch-hit opportunities, batted for Garcia and looked at three strikes without swinging the bat. Third baseman Virginie Anneveld then struck out swinging.

Akron reached Rebellion starter Dallas Escobedo, who deserved a better fate, for two runs in the sixth inning. Right fielder Ayumi Karino singled to right for Akron’s third hit of the game, was sacrificed to second by shortstop Jill Barrett and made it to third on a groundout. Designated hitter Nerissa Myers was intentionally walked and pinch-hitter Shellie Robinson was unintentionally walked.

“That (intentional walk) took me out of my zone a little bit, going that drastic away from a hitter and coming back to pitching normal again,” said Escobedo. “It threw me for a loop.”

Third baseman Kelley Montalvo then knocked in two runs with a single to left-center field.

“Dallas is doing a good job,” said Montvidas. “We were going to live or die with her.”

Escobedo struck out six and walked three on 119 pitches.

“I try to keep it on myself,” Escobedo said. “If they don’t score, then they don’t win. When I let up the two runs, I was like, ‘Dang, that was my bad. I let us down.'”

Meanwhile, Norris lost her no-hitter when Peterson beat an infield grounder that was dropped by first baseman Briana Hamilton. Replays appeared to show Peterson beat the throw anyway. Norris, who had a perfect game against now-defunct Rockford in her NPF debut in 2009, struck out nine and walked five.

“I was hoping for an error (on Peterson’s single), but that’s OK,” said Norris. “I was mixing my pitches on both sides of the plate, trying to keep them guessing.”

Attendance was 783, pushing the home attendance at Consol over 13,000 for the season. … Akron officials asked that the video of Peterson’s single be sent to the NPF office for review, hoping to get it changed to an error.