North City did something wrong in a former life

Every Running Rebels post-game article is beginning to sound the same:

Anthony is fast, blah blah, Jack W. and Luke turned some double plays, blah blah blah, Shane threw out someone jogging to second, blah, Tucker robbed a sure triple, blah blah, Jack O. hit two home runs, blah, our defense is ridiculous, blah blah, mercy rule.

Instead today we will profile our upcoming victim, North City, though much of what we have to say, about superior defense and shutouts, will sound familiar.

We first encountered North City in our 5th game of the Section Tournament. They just came off a tough loss to a then scorching Tecolote, and unfortunately, for them, ran into our boys at the front end of what is now an 11-game winning streak. In that game North City tasted it's first Rebel-administered lopsided defeat: 23-13. If they never played us again, I think they would have been okay with that.

Enter the Regionals. In the 3rd round of that tournament, in which North City must have felt they were doing fine, they received their second ten-run Rebel loss, this time by mercy rule. The reward was a slogging foray into the consolation bracket only to face La Costa North again, waiting eagerly for them in the finals.

The finals? Well, that resulted in an 11-run mercy ruling, in a pure lightning flash of a Championship game. For their efforts, which I am sure they were having difficulty appreciating, North City advanced to the Division Tournament. Of course, so did the Rebels. No one could be less happy for that than North City.

So, three games into the Divisionals and we meet again. North City and La Costa North are both undefeated, again. The winner of this match up goes directly to the finals, while the loser must eek out two more wins for the privilege of a rematch in the Championship..again.

As the praise for our boys approaches redundancy, so must the North City consolation speech following a game against us. If Tecolote were anywhere around they would empathize, but there is no one who wants to see the Rebels hoist another banner less than North City. That is why this game could be more hotly contested than the previous matches, and certainly closer than the Rebels earlier Divisional games. As we are now paying $5 to get into the games, I doubt anyone is going to complain if this one goes the full six innings.