The Abilene Rebels 16-18 year-olds Senior Babe Ruth League baseball team will open the 2018 season at home versus Salina on Wednesday, May 30. The Rebels return the entire roster from last year’s team, which finished 20-4 and fourth place in the Babe Ruth State Tournament, and will add just one new face to the roster.
Billy Hansen, who enters his 18th season as Head Coach with a 266-154 career record, is excited about this season.
“We, obviously, have a lot of experience returning to the team this year and have a lot of players that have experience playing at the varsity level on the Abilene High School team,” said Hansen. “The high school season, record-wise, wasn’t what we expected, but we finished playing well. We hope we can build on that.” Hansen is an assistant coach for the Abilene High School baseball team. “We also have some faces back from last summer’s team who received experience playing at the next level, and are young enough to return to play for us,” Hansen continued.
The Rebel’s season ended bitterly last year at the state tournament in Wellington. Abilene entered the tournament with an 18-1 record. They won their first two games in pool play over Wellington and CVL, but lost their third game to Independence. The Rebels were still the number one seed from their pool heading into bracket play. They would face a familiar opponent in Junction City, but lost. The Rebels had one more shot to make it to the Babe Ruth Midwest Plains Regional Tournament, of which Kansas was the host state in 2017-and the tournament was in Junction City, but lost to another familiar opponent, CVL, who they had defeated three times in the previous week-including once in pool play at the state tournament.
“I think the boys feel like they have some unfinished business, and would like to have a little bit better showing at the state tournament,” stated Hansen. “We should be pretty good again this season, and hope we can build on last year’s success. We have a lot of games in a short period of time in June but we should be fine, and can hopefully stay away from injuries. As always, we will compete hard each game and have some fun,” Hansen continued.
All of the home games for the Abilene Rebels are played at Ted Power Field in Abilene. There is no admission charge to attend the home games. A full schedule is listed below.
2018 Abilene Rebels Schedule
WED., MAY 30: vs. SALINA 6 pm & 8 pm
SAT., JUN. 2: vs. ABC ALUMNI (ABILENE BASEBALL CLUB ALUMNI GAME) 2:30 pm
(Alumni batting practice begins at 1pm)
SUN., JUN. 3: vs. SALINA 5 pm & 7 pm
TUES., JUN. 5: at HILLSBORO 6 pm & 8 pm
THURS., JUN. 7: vs. HESSTON 6 pm & 8pm
FRI., JUN. 8-SUN., JUN. 10: at SALINA TOURNAMENT (schedule tbd)
FRI., JUN. 15: vs. HILLSBORO 6pm & 8pm
TUES., JUN. 19: at JUNCTION CITY 6pm & 8pm
SUN., JUN. 24: at HESSTON 3pm & 5pm
MON., JUN. 25: at SALINA (Dean Evans Stadium) 6pm & 8pm
SUN., JUL. 1: vs. JUNCTION CITY 2pm & 4pm
