Coleman Peck drives in Evan Swindell and moves Christopher Calabrese to 3rd  in the Rebels 10-0 win over Corinth Strikers Sunday

The FW Rebels were late entrees into the Memorial Day Classic tournament and were playing without Jace Franke & Wyatt Baccus.  That, plus only playing 4 games in all of May due to rain and you would think the Rebels would come out quite rusty.  That wasn't the case.  The Rebels downed the Texarkana Mudcats 5-0 and the DFW Twins 5-1 in Pool play to earn the #1 seed in the 8-team tournament.  They easily won vs the #8 seed Corinth Strikers 10-0 Sunday morning, and then fell 11-4 in a rematch versus the DFW Twins in the semifinals to exit the tournament.  The 11-4 final score was misleading as the game was much closer than the final score.  Here are the game-by-game recaps:

Game 1 Pool Play

FW Rebels 5

Texarkana Mudcats 0

Odd that it's almost June and longtime Rebels pitcher Quentin Enos is just now making his first start on the hill for the Rebels. Enos pitched 2 hitless innings and struckout 2.  The Rebels got on the board in the first inning against the scrappy Mudcats.  With one out, Carlos Guerrero walked and stole second.  Evan Smith singled sending Guerrero to third.  Guerrero then scored on an RBI grounder by Enos. 

Coleman Peck came on to pitch and allowed 1 hit in 2 innings of work while striking out 4.  Carlos Guerrero pitched a scoreless 5th inning and the game was still 1-0 heading to the bottom of the 5th.

Unfortunately for the Mudcats, they could no longer throw a strike, and Caden Spurling, Kameron Mantyh, Evan Swindell, and Evan Wainright all walked and scored on wild pitches. Those 4 additional runs were enough for the Rebels to win 5-0. 

Great defensive plays were turned in by Caden Spurling at first on a difficult scoop, Bryson Snow with bullet throws on  a couple of difficult strike three's that got away, Charlie Rusk made a terrific running grab in left centerfield, Quentin Enos snagged a smash down the 3rd baseline and threw a bullet to 1st.  Pitching and defense definitely won this one.

Evan Smith's 2-run double closed out the Corinth Strikers in the first bracket game

Game 2 Pool Play

FW Rebels 5

DFW Twins 1

The second pool play game was against one of the better area teams in the DFW Twins.  Since the games were back-to-back, the Rebels decided to open with Carlos Guerrero on the mound since he was loose from closing out the opening game.  Guerrero did not disappoint striking out all three hitters he faced in the top of the first.

In the bottom half of the first, Guerrero reached on an error by the Twins SS.  Evan Smith lined a single to center advancing Guerrero to third.  Quentin Enos then hit a booming double to left center scoring Guerrero and Smith giving the Rebels a 2-0 lead.

Kameron Mantyh came on to pitch and was sensational stranding runners in scoring position.  He left a runner on 3rd in the 2nd inning, left 2 on in the 3rd inning, and struckout 2 straight hitters with the bases loaded in the 4th inning.  All in all Mantyh gave up just 1 run in his 3 innings of work.

The Rebels broke the game open with 3 runs in the bottom of the 3rd.  Evan Wainright singled to open the inning and stole 2nd.  With 1 out, Coleman Peck singled to right but Wainright was unable to score and was tagged out in a rundown between home and third.  Carlos Guerrero followed with a walk with Peck at 2nd.  Both of them were able to move up a base when a pitch to Evan Smith got by the Twins catcher.  Evan Smith hit a clutch 2-run single to give the Rebels a 4-0 lead.  Smith then stole 2nd....stole 3rd....and then raced home alertly when a throw back to the pitcher got away. 

Smith pitched the final frame to close things out and the Rebels finished 2-0 to earn the tournaments #1 seed.

Coleman Peck displays the game ball and the lineup card to his No-Hitter Sunday vs Corinth Strikers

Game 3 Bracket Play

FW Rebels 10

Corinth Strikers 0

It was almost a perfect game.  One Corinth Strikers batter reached base on a Rebel error but besides that, Rebel starter Coleman Peck was perfect not allowing a hit, or a walk, and striking out 8 in his 4 innings of work.  A sensational outing no matter the age, or opponent, or level.  No hitters are very hard to come by any time and Coleman Peck was unhittable against the Strikers.  Factor in the 2 innings he threw the previous night, Peck pitched 6 innings in the tournament, allowed 1 hit, didnt walk any...and struckout 12. Wow!

With Peck cruising on the mound, the Rebels methodically supported him at the plate with 3 runs in the first and second inning, then 2 in the 3rd and 4th to win the game 10-0.   Evan Smith went 2-3 with a double and 3 RBI.  Quentin Enos went 1-1 with a walk, and 2 RBI.  Coleman Peck, Carlos Guerrero, Kameron Mantyh, Evan Swindell, and Evan Wainright all drove in runs for the Rebels.  Christopher Calabrese went 1-1 and scored 2 runs and stole 2 bases.

Kameron Mantyh knocks  line drive hit to right in the semifinals vs the DFW Twins.  Mantyh went 2-2 in the game.

Game 4 Bracket Play

DFW Twins 11

FW Rebels 4

This game was much closer than the final score but the Rebels defense fell apart and it was just too much to overcome against a solid Twins team.  Evan Smith started on the hill for the Rebels and allowed a paid of earned runs in the 1st inning and a paid of unearned runs thanks to the first of six Rebel errors on the day.

It stayed 4-0 until the bottom of the second inning when the Rebels staged a rally.  Bryson Snow opened the inning by reaching on an error that sent him hustling to 2nd.  Charlie Rusk ripped a double down the left field line to make it 4-1 scoring Snow. Rusk advanced to 3rd with Christopher Calabrese at the plate and then scored when Calabrese grounded out to the SS to make it 4-2. Kameron Mantyh singled to right and then advanced to 2nd with Evan Swindell at the plate on a wild pitch.  Swindell advanced Mantyh to 3rd on a groundout to second.  Caden Spurling had an amazing 8-pitch at bat that resulted in a clutch 2-out RBI single to score Mantyh to make it 4-3.  Evan Wainright then walked sending Spurling to 2nd. Coleman Peck then came to the plate and had a battle of his own fouling off multiple pitches.  With a 2-2 count, Peck laced a sinking liner to the right fielder who alertly threw the ball to first to get Peck to end the inning.

In the top of the 3rd, the Twins tacked on a run with two doubles to make it 5-3.  Evan Smith produced a run practically all by himself in the bottom of the 3rd.  With one out, Smith doubled to left.  As the Twins worked the ball back to the pitcher, Smith noticed no one was covering 3rd and took off in a sprint and reached 3rd base easily. Quentin Enos grounded to 3rd to score Smith and made the score 5-4.

With Carlos Guerrero now on the mound, the Rebels defense tanked.  Guerrero got two quick outs to open the 4th inning then gave up a single.  The next batter also singled but the Rebels threw the relay throw to the infield away allowing an unearned run to score.

With the score 6-4, the Rebels were now facing the Twins....and the clock.  The Rebels swung the bats aggressively and couldnt score in the bottom of the 4th but they were able to extend the game another inning.  Unfortunately, the sloppy defensive game got even worse.  The Twins scored 5 runs in the 5th on just 2 hits.  4 Rebel errors were their undoing and the Twins went on to win 11-4.

Still, after missing a few weeks due to the rain that has taken over DFW for all of May, the last-minute tournament can be labeled a success....and at the same time....what could have been.