Jun 2, 2015 3 min read

Miranda Kramer, the Pennsylvania Rebellion’s top pick in the National Pro Fastpitch softball league draft, will miss at least a month while inflammation subsides in her pitching arm.

Kramer, the first pick in the second round of the April 1 draft, said she had been battling the pain since March.

“I was eager and ready to go,” she said of playing for the Rebellion. “So this is bittersweet.”

Kramer was the first player selected in the NPF draft from Western Kentucky, where she amassed eye-popping pitching numbers. Kramer averaged nearly 11 strikeouts per seven innings and had 1,204 career strikeouts to go along with a 1.24 ERA. She threw three no-hitters and a perfect game in her senior season.

“We met with the team trainers and doctor and they said she needed rest,” said Rebellion manager Craig Montvidas. “She hasn’t thrown for two weeks and will be off another four weeks.”

Montvidas said the team was unaware of the injury prior to drafting her. Kramer threw 192 pitches in a 14-inning NCAA Division I playoff game against Georgia and was unsure whether that exacerbated the problem.

“They had a pitcher and they rode me,” said Kramer. “When you have a good pitcher on the team, you use her when you can.”

During the Georgia game, Kramer tore the skin off her index finger, and was not effective in her next two starts, both losses.

“It’s because of the way I spin the ball,” Kramer said. “I’ve had that happen before.”

Kramer said she put off having an MRI done when the pain flared in March because she thought she could pitch through it. She did have an X-ray and it did not show a break of any kind.

“It started to get better,” she said. “But it got worse towards the end of the season.”

Kramer and Montvidas said if she had continued to pitch, the arm would have given out and she would have probably suffered a stress fracture that would have ended her season.

“The problem is between the wrist and the elbow,” Montvidas said. “She’s a tough kid.”

The Rebellion, coming off a 9-39 season in 2014, started the NPF season over the weekend and went 1-4 after playing a single game against Chicago Friday and two games each Saturday and Sunday with Chicago and Akron.

The Rebellion open a three-game series at the NPF’s newest franchise, the Dallas Charge tonight.

The loss of Kramer disrupts the pitching rotation. Kramer arrived in camp last Wednesday and Montvidas said he wanted to use her sparingly to give her time to rest from the extended college season.

Dallas Escobedo, the No. 1 pick in last year’s NPF draft, is one of six players listed on the Rebellion roster. Free agent Allyson Fournier, a Division III player from Tufts, was impressive in her performance over the weekend. Emma Johnson of Kent State, the second of two fifth-round picks; Angel Bunner, who started the opener; Emily Weiman of North Carolina State, the first of two fifth-round picks; and Bryana Walker, a third-round pick last year out of Washington, are available.

“We’re still looking at it,” Montvidas said. “So no, we don’t have our rotation set yet.”