Battle Jacks Force Extras, Fall 7-6 to Leprechauns

Royal Oak struck first, scoring two on a Jack Dauer single in the first inning. Battle Creek responded immediately, tying the game in the bottom of the first with doubles from Brendan Thompson and Jake Stedman.

The Royal Oak bats were hot early, adding one run in the second inning and another in the third to take back the lead.

Some strong defense from both sides kept the score at 4-2 for a while, before the Battle Jacks tacked on a third run in the fifth inning via a Brendan Thompson single. An excellent catch from Royal Oak left fielder Patrick Illitch prevented Battle Creek from adding on any more runs.

Royal Oak scored a fifth run in the sixth inning, expanding their lead to two runs.

The Battle Jacks’ bats came alive in the bottom of the ninth, led by a game-tying double from Dayne Wimberly to send the game to extra innings. However, Royal Oak roared back to score two runs in the top of the tenth and held on to win the game, despite Battle Creek adding one more run in the bottom of the 10th.

With this loss, Battle Creek falls to 1-6 in the second half and 13-28 overall. The Battle Jacks are back in action on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. for the first game of a two-game road trip against Kalamazoo.