Rebels Ready for Playoffs

The Genesee Rebels finished their 2015 regular season on Sunday afternoon with a low-key tune-up against the Southwest Division Champion Waterford Rivermen. The final score was lopsided in the favor of the Rivermen, but the Rebels got what they wanted out of the day with all players getting some key final reps before the playoffs. The game was relatively meaningless as the Rivermen had already locked up the #1 seed and the Rebels were locked into the #3 seed and both teams emerged feeling confident with their postseason potential.

The Rebels entered the game Sunday a bit shorthanded with multiple players scheduling vacations during the final week of the season. The Rebels that were there were ready to play. Here are some highlights from the game:
- Derek Urban started on the mound for the Rebels and in just 1 2/3 innings quickly because the most prolific sniper in Rebel history plunking FOUR Waterford batters and throwing just 38 pitches.
- Brandon Molkentin returned from a month-long hiatus, during which he was incommunicado, touting a grizzly-adams type beard and made his LOL debut on the mound and collected a base hit.
- 9 of the 11 Rebels hitters collected one hit on the day.
- Kindall Wincek swung 9 times and collected his first LOL career hit.
- Chris Theisen finally unleashed the power and disclosed some sensitive information on a fastball that used some never-before-seen deep space quantum mechanics power to launch itself over the right center fence for his first home run of the year showing everyone

that it's all about the power of the mind.
- Derek Urban collected his first hit of the season and, in case you missed it, hit more batters in 1/3 of an inning than the rest of the Rebels pitching staff hit during the entire season.
- Andy Sturtevant, Brian Szajna, Dave Hellman, Nate Labott, Kyle Stasik, Aaron Dolan, Nelson Heckenkamp, Dom Nabak, and Keith McFarlane did nothing baseball related.


Despite the loss, the 2015 regular season proved to be a successful one for the Rebels They finished with their best winning percentage since 2009 and are heading into the playoffs with confidence at a record-high.

The Rebels locked up the # 3 seed for the playoffs and will host the # 4 seed North Prairie on Saturday, August 22nd at 1:30 at Genesee Town Park. The teams split their earlier meetings this season with the Rebels winning the most recent affair by a score of 7-4. North Prairie is a scary team to face as they have a lot of young talent to go with a core of veteran players. The Rebels will be short-handed again next Saturday as they will be missing four starters, but the amount of depth the Rebels have added this year, they are still in good hands.

In other action, # 2 East Troy will host # 5 Oconomowoc. The two winners will face off on Sunday, August 23rd. The winner of Sunday's matchup will join Waterford in the Grand Championships on the weekend of August 29th & 30th.

Click HERE for More Pictures from the Game 
*Photos Courtesy of Lisa Heckenkamp