BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

RESERVE-It is not how they wanted to end their regular season, but the Riverside Rebels did conclude the 2005 campaign with a tough extra-innings loss to Lutcher 6-3 Saturday afternoon.

The loss drops the Rebels to 19-10 overall, but they remain an impressive 6-1 in district 10-2A.

Jordan Poirrier took the loss in relief for Riverside after coming into the game in the eighth inning and giving up three runs.

“We just didn’t hit the ball,” Riverside Head Coach Steve Stropolo said after the game. “That’s the bottom line. We only got three hits and you can’t win. It does not make a difference who is out there pitching.

“The main thing that we wanted to accomplish and I think that we did that was to get all of our pitchers set and ready to go for this Thursday’s playoff game. We would have liked to have won the game, no doubt about it, but again when you only get three hits you cannot win.”

Beginning the most important part of the season, Stropolo said his team is ready.

“We’re set in our rotation,” Stropolo said. “Every one of our kids can go if they have to. I can use any one of them.. They got enough work in last week so that was important to us.

“The absolutely most important part about the playoffs besides the fact that it is one and go home if you lose, is that every at-bat counts. If there is a foul ball that you don’t get to because you might have loafed a little bit and then on the next pitch the guy gets a base hit. Those things you don’t think about during the season, but in the playoffs you cannot have that.”