Recap: Royal Oak 9, Kenosha 6

Friday, May 30th 2025

Royal Oak, MI – The Kenosha Kingfish did something they had yet to do in the early 2025 campaign: lose a game that they had a lead in. The fish had a 6-5 lead heading into Royal Oak’s home half of the 8th, before surrendering a four spot and losing 9-6. 

Once again the pitching was great early in this one, however it was a game that saw action from the pen fairly early. After a scoreless first inning of work for Robbie Boykin that required just six pitches, the Kingfish turned to Matt Woodward, who gave them three innings of relief. 

Royal Oak struck first in the bottom of the 2nd off Woodward on a run-scoring double-play groundout. That was the only scoring through the first four frames.

Cal Rutherford got the start for Royal Oak and threw four scoreless innings of 1-hit baseball. With the exemption of Justin Morgan for Battle Creek, opposing starters have held Kenosha to one run over 19 innings. 

In the fifth though, this game would take a turn with scoring in seven of the next eight half innings. Kenosha tied the game 1-1 with an RBI walk from Brayden Bakes. That was followed with a three spot in the bottom half of the inning giving Royal Oak a 4-1 lead. 

Kenosha would tie the game again after an RBI HBP by Robert Newland in the 6th and then a couple RBI singles in the 7th from Dayton Murphy and Aidan Thaxton. 

Once again Royal Oak would regain the lead after an unearned run scored on a Chase Van Ameyde RBI single made it 5-4 Royal Oak after 7.  

The Kingfish tied the game in the top of the 8th after their second RBI HBP of the game, this time from Dayton Murphy. Then a Trent Abel RBI walk gave Kenosha a 6-5 lead. 

That lead was short-lived. Four walks and a hit-by-pitch aided Royal Oak to a four-run bottom of the 8th, which gave the Leprechauns a 9-6 lead. 

Royal Oak held on to win by that score and take game one of the two-game set. The Leprechauns improve to 4-1, while Kenosha falls to 2-3. The two teams match up again Saturday at 5:35 pm Central time.