A historic day for the Leprechauns organization led to a deflating result as Royal Oak fell to the Kenosha Kingfish 13-3 on Monday night.

“Definitely not the way you want to start a year,” said Leprechauns head coach Jonathan Vance. 

Kenosha piled on nine total runs in the fifth and sixth innings to grab a commanding lead it held a stranglehold on the rest of the way. 

“The walks killed us today,” Vance said. 

The Kingfish received a total of 10 free passes, earning seven walks and having three hit by pitches. 

The rally spanning two innings began with the bottom three hitters of the Kingfish lineup, Warrick Wilmot, John St. Clair, and Jack Fitzharris each reaching base to begin the fifth. The frame snowballed from there as three Leprechauns pitchers appeared in the inning and five runs scored on 11 batters. 

Three runs scored in the sixth before Royal Oak was able to get one out. Runners scored on an RBI single by Noah Jouras, an advancement from third to home on a throw to second, a single by Brandon Nigh, and on a groundout by Maxim Fullerton. 

Kenosha added one more in the eighth on an RBI by Wilmot to make the game 10-0. 

All three of Royal Oak’s runs came in the eighth and ninth innings. Jacob Billings and Tony Hatzigeorgiou each recorded RBIs, with Hatzigeorgiou also scoring on a wild pitch. 

Silver linings were still aplenty, though. The Leprechauns did have ample opportunities to score runs, but were not able to capitalize on them in the early-to-mid innings. Royal Oak had a tremendous opportunity to take an early lead in the third with two runners in scoring position and no one out, but were not able to get any across. 

The game began in a stalemate, as Harvard product Andrew Abler shut down the initial Kenosha attack while starting on the mound for Royal Oak. He threw 3.2 innings and gave up just one hit. Abler could have gone further into the game, but Vance did say that he is on a pitch limit. 

The game was 0-0 after four innings. 

MSU’s Ryan McKay was another bright spot. He only recorded one actual at-bat, where he singled in the third. He walked in all four of his other plate appearances and never made an out at the plate. 

Regardless, it was a rough day on offense for Royal Oak. The Leprechauns ended with six total hits and collectively struck out 13 times. McKay was the only starter to not strike out. 

“We’ve got 71 more of these,” Vance said. “If we are hitting the panic button after game one, we’re in for a long summer, so we’re definitely not going to do that.”

Royal Oak will be right back at the Lucky Corner at 11:05 a.m. on Tuesday, looking to split the two-game set with Kenosha. After that, they have four more games in the initial homestand, with games against the Lakeshore Chinooks on Wednesday and Thursday and a doubleheader on Friday with the Kokomo Jackrabbits.