By: Kyle Tausk
ROCKFORD, Ill. — The luck ran out for the Leprechauns on Father’s Day in Rockford.
The Rivets (11-8) celebrated their dads and the first Screw City Sunday of the season donning their Sock Monkey alternate uniforms with a commanding bounce back victory over the Royal Oak Leprechauns (9-11), 9-4. The Rivets jumped in front early and never looked back, coming away with a weekend split in the second series meeting of the season between the two squads.
After being held off the scoreboard for the first time all season on Saturday night, the Rivets wasted no time getting the bats rolling again in Sunday’s rematch. After the first two hitters reached in the bottom of the first inning — a leadoff single by Zeb Allen (Central Arkansas) and a walk by Kolby Felix (Colorado Mesa) — Ty Waid (McLennan) ripped an RBI single to left field to put Rockford on top after just three hitters came to bat.
Sam Flores (Kansas State) immediately followed with an RBI single of his own. With the bases loaded and still nobody out, Tommy Townsend (Butler) drove in another on a sacrifice fly before Flores came around to score on the throw of a stolen base attempt. In total, the Rivets plated four runs in the first inning and took a sizable lead that would hold the rest of the afternoon.
“There’s a difference between getting beat and not playing the way you think you should,” head coach Chase Brewster said. “Yesterday, I don’t know if we gave a fair representation of what we’ve done the last three weeks since we’ve been here. I don’t know that much changed approach wise from today to yesterday but luckily, a lot of balls fell earlier today.”
The Rivets were relentless at the plate, putting constant traffic on the basepaths nearly all day. After leaving two runners on in the second and the bases loaded in the third without scoring, the Rivets broke out their drivers and began blasting home runs.
Zeb Allen led off the bottom of the fourth with his second long ball of the season to extend the Rockford lead to five. Allen exited the game in the sixth after putting together the most impressive offensive performance of the Rivets’ season to date, going 4-for-4 with two runs scored and the solo blast to bring his team-leading batting average up to .429.
He was named the Peak Sports Club Player of the Game for the second time already in his nine games with the Rivets.
“I think everybody’s kind of riding on each other’s energy,” Allen said. “Being able to build on that as we did a few days ago and then being able to come back out today and have some great success, it’s been pretty cool.”
Jayce Blalock (Arkansas Little-Rock) followed Allen’s homer in the fourth with a two-run bomb of his own, his first since joining the team on Monday. In the fifth, Nolan Belcher (Kentucky) joined the power party as well, clubbing a long home run over the big Rivets Stadium left field wall to put the Rivets in total control.
The Rivets forced Leprechauns starter Jackson Miller out of the game after just 1.2 innings in the lefty’s first start of the season, forcing five different Leprechauns pitchers into action before the day was over. Meanwhile, Cole Edwards (Eccelsia) and Gus Allred (Northern Colorado) combined to provide a desperately-needed 7 efficient innings after manager Chase Brewster was forced to use 11 different pitchers in the last two games.
Edwards tossed four shutout innings in his second start of the season before giving way to Allred, who took the ball for 3 innings of his own, giving up two runs. The two combined to allow just nine baserunners and kept the Rivets comfortably in front into the eighth inning.
“We haven’t been so fortunate early this summer to get outs we need to get quickly,” Brewster said. “If you just compete a little bit in the zone, you got a chance to win, and that’s exactly what those two did for us.”
The Leprechauns did make some noise late, however. After Allred departed, Royal Oak cut into the deficit with three runs in the eighth off Braydon Cooper (Rock Valley) with a pair of doubles. Two of the runs were charged to Cooper, causing Brewster to quickly turn the final five outs over to one of his most trusted bullpen arms, Aidan Wagley (Ecclesia).
Wagley shut things down, retiring two straight Leprechaun hitters to strand a man in scoring position in the eighth. He came back out for the ninth and closed out the victory, inducing a double play to cut down a leadoff single before striking out the final hitter to end it.
Ny’zaiah Thompson (Modesto) provided him a little extra insurance beforehand with a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the eighth, his first of the season. The Rivets’ four home runs are the most they’ve hit in a game this season.
The Rivets remain deadlocked in first place with Kalamazoo in the Great Lakes East division standings. They’ll have an opportunity to bank some wins in their home ballpark over the rest of the month, with 14 of their next 20 games set to take place at Rivets Stadium.
“It’s a breath of fresh air,” Brewster said. “We’re excited to be able to wake up for our fans and play well and just keep giving people a reason to be proud of what we’re doing here.”
First though, they’ll travel to Madison to take on the Mallards tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets for Rivets games all season long at www.rockfordrivets.com.
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The Rockford Rivets are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Now in its’ 31st season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in history with 26 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires, and front office staff, 360 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (TEX), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford (STL) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (ATL). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and 2019/2021 Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and 2023 World Series Champion, MLB All-Star, MLB Gold Glove winner and two-time All-MLB first team shortstop Marcus Semien (TEX). League games are viewable live on Northwoods League+ (at watch.northwoodsleague.com), ESPN+, and the Northwoods League Network. Learn more and find complete streaming schedules at watchnwl.com. For more information, visit www.rockfordrivets.com or download the new Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play and set the Rivets as your favorite team.