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The kick off the the 2018 Powerline Baseball League came about quickly. As word of the success and quality competition  the PBL spread, new teams applied and were approved in an expansion vote. The Camrose Axemen moves from the NCABL, to provide a second team in the booming metropolis in the capital of the County, while the Edmonton Expos were a brand new expansion team to baseball in central Alberta. With the added teams, the league executive added a 4 vs 5 play in game to the playoff bracket. The parity The league has recently seen makes the outlook for the 2018 season full of excitement and tight playoff races. 

Brayden Benson got the nod to be the opening day starter for the Athletics, as the local Rosalindite took on the Sherwood Park Athletics on Saturday at the Homer Dome 

After a bitter defeat on Thursday in Holden, the Rosalind Athletics were eager to put the loss behind them and start fresh in their goal to win another PBL Championship.  Holden proved they would not go quietly, as the resilient bunch came from behind in the sixth inning to even the series at one.  After the long weekend off, and on a beautiful prairie night in Rosalind, game three would set up a winner take all match up.

Dan Enright got the call, as the ace of the pitching staff, to lead the A's into game three.  Enright was coming off a complete game victory in game one, where he didn't allow any earned runs in a 7-1 victory at the Homer Dome in Rosalind. After a 1-2-3 first inning, Enright got into a bit of a jam in the second after walking the first two batters and hitting the third.  Rosalind was able to limit the damage to one run, an RBI single by the Holden catcher, before a strike out and a key double play turned.  In the third inning, the Blue Jays ended up getting an RBI double by their hard hitting first baseman down the left field line that probably needed a spray painted foul line to goto video replay.  Enright was able to strand the Holden runner at second, and keep the game at 2-2.  In the fifth inning with runners on first and second, Enright reered back to throw a fastball by the Blue Jays batter and shut down another rally.  The top of the sixth inning provided the TSN Turning Point of the Game, when with runners on first and second with one out, a single to left field had leftfielder Josh Burnstad scrambling to come up throwing a dart to homeplate just in time to get the Holden runner, as catcher Sheldon Pederson hung on this time to keep the game at 4-2.  Enright would throw a complete game 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on 10 hits while walking 4, hitting 2 and striking out 4.

Offensively, the Atheltics got off to a good start in the bottom of the first inning, which tends to be key to the A's success.  Sheldon Pederson drew a lead off walk and stole second, and advanced to third on Ryan Yuha's single.  Yuha stole second, and advanced to third, as Pederson scored on a passed ball.  Yuha scored the second run of the game, on a close play at the plate on Chance Wheatley's sac fly to right field, as the Holden fielder made it close with a good throw.  With the score 2-2, going into the bottom of the 3rd inning, Wheatley lead off with a deep fly ball to center field for a clutch homerun to put the A's up 3-2.  Mark Gjesdal produced a one out single, followed by Josh Burnstad reaching on a error by the second baseman.  With runners on the corners, Steve Enright hit a double off the center field fence to put Rosalind up 4-2.  In the bottom of the sixth inning, after the Blue Jays had made a pitching change to their hard throwing righty, Sheldon Pederson led off with a triple, and scored on Ryan Yuha's ground out to make the score 5-2 in favour of the Athletics.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Blue Jays, down 5-2, led off with a single before grounding into a fielders choice as the A's were close to turning a double play.  A ball hit the other way of the bat of the lefty clean up hitter turned into another fielders choice, as the Holden baserunner got to second.  With two out, the A's pitcher and most of the infield thought they had struck out the Holden batter on two consecutive pitches before the batter eventually singled and drove in a run to make it 5-3.  Holden's rightfielder singled, followed by a single to left field by their catcher to load the bases.  With two out, down 5-3 and the bases full, fan intensity and anxiety at the max, the Blue Jays third baseman hit a groundball to steady Steve Enright who threw out the runner at first to secure the Rosalind Athletics second PBL Championship.  Dan Enright was named PBL Championship MVP throwing two complete game victories.

The Rosalind Athletics team wanted to thank the Holden Blue Jays for a tremendous series and a hard fought battle.  The A's wanted to also thank all the fans, of the team and the PBL, for coming out to support both teams in the finals.  As well, a big thank you to all the fans that read this website for all the game day stories and articles, hope you all enjoyed them.  See you next year, as Rosalind tried to defend their PBL Champion title in 2018.  Thank You!

Mark Gjesdal hit a 2 run homerun and a 2RBI double, while Dan Enright returned to ace form as the Rosalind Athletics took Game One of the Powerline Baseball League Championship series.  Game Two goes on Thursday in Holden at 7pm.

Detailed story and stats to follow this afternoon.... 

On Tuesday night the Rosalind Athletics travelled to the booming metropolis of Leduc to take on the Milleteers for game two of the semi final round of PBL playoffs.  The A's took game one in decisive fashion, 15-5 in five innings, but knew they'd be in for a doozy in the big field of Fred John's Park.  Rosalind was missing a few key pieces in the lineup through vactions and work, only have 9 players on the line up card.

Steve Enright got his first playoff start of the 2017 season, and the fifth of the season.  Enright was coming off a complete game victory against Leduc at the end of the regular season.  Enright weeved in and out of trouble from the get go, but a few key and clutch defensive plays kept the Milleteers at bay.  In the first inning, the two lead off Leduc batters reached base, however two bang-bang plays at third base for consecutive force outs by Enright and Pederson, and a nice back hand pick by Benson got the A's out of the first inning scoreless.  In the third inning, with the A's down 1-0, the first three batters reached for Leduc to load the bases with no one out.  Enrights next Houdini act took place as he proceeded to get a clutch strikeout before Burnstad made a diving catch on a line drive up the middle, followed by a pop up to have Rosalind get out of the inning unscathed.  In the fourth inning, after the A's took the lead 4-1, Enright got into a bit of trouble walking the first batter before giving up 4 straight singles.  Steve's previous magicians magic rubbed off on Mark Gjesdal, tasked with coming in to a 4-4 game with runners on 1st and 3rd with no one out.  Gjesday proceed to get a groundball double play, and a ground ball to get out of the inning.  Enright ended up going 3+ innings, giving up 5 runs, 4 earned on 11 hits while walking 1 and striking out 3.  Gjesdal played hero going 2 innings with 0 runs allowing 2 hits with no walks or strikeouts, as well as picking off a base runner in the 5th.

Offensively, Rosalind was held off the board til the top of the 4th.  Burnstad walked, and took second on an attempted pick off by the Leduc pitcher, before Harbak walked and Gjesdal added an RBI single.  Harbak scored on Nic Ronsko's single, followed by Gjesdal scoring on Pederson's fielders choice.  Matt came around to score on Ryan Yuha's single, making it 4-1 for the good guys before the inning closed.  With the A's down 5-4 in the top of the 5th, the flood gates opened.  With plate disipline, and one out, Harbak walked, Gjesdal singled, Matt Enright walked before an RBI hit by pitch for Ronsko.  Pederson supplied an RBI single to right field off the Milleteers first reliever.  Yuha provided another RBI hit by pitch, and Steve Enright drew another walk.  Benson drove in a run on a hard hit ball to the shortstop that he was unble to come up with.  Batting for the second time in the inning, Josh Burnstad singled and drove in a run.  Harbak walked for the second time in the inning and third walk in the game.  Gjesdal drew an RBI walk, followed by a new pitcher for the Milleteers, to which Matt Enright hit an RBI ground out to the second basemen.  Hang in there, that wasn't the third out yet.  Nic Ronsko singled, and Sheldon Pederson put a bloop double on the books for 2 more runs scored before Ryan Yuha popped out to the catcher.  In total 11 runs scored, and the A's took at 15-5 lead.  Holding the Milleteers in the bottom of the 5th held the score, and secured a second mercy win for the Athletics.

With Holden beating Tofield in the other semi final to tie the series at 1-1, the A's look to host the winner of game 3's match up on Thursday night.  Game one of the Championship series will start on Tuesday in Rosalind.  This is the 3rd straight year that the A's have made the PBL finals, and the 9th straight league finals that Rosalind has been in between the BRBL and the PBL.