The Royal Oak offense caught fire again and David Lally dazzled on the mound in the Leprechauns’ 7-0 win over Kenosha on Wednesday.
“That was incredible,” said Leprechauns head coach Jonathan Vance. “Lally was absolutely incredible tonight. Phenomenal stuff.”
The victory propels the Leprechauns back to .500 for the first time since the beginning of the season and is their third straight win overall. Royal Oak and Kenosha are now tied in the standings at 8-8.
Lally racked up 11 strikeouts in six scoreless innings of work. He gave up just four hits and did not issue any walks.
“The boys were backing me up,” Lally said. “I was getting a lot of ground balls. Fellas were communicating with me all day.”
On top of the strikeouts, Royal Oak turned in a quality defensive performance. JR Bedford committed an error in the sixth inning, but made up for it by turning a double play on the very next pitch. Lally ended up only throwing 4 pitches in that inning.
“The guys are instilling confidence in me, and just having their support is everything to me,” Lally said.
To complete the shutout, Macio Miller, Joe Turner and JT Guerrero all handed in three outs of work for the final three innings.
Kenosha also received a good start from Brody Kryzsiak on the mound. Kryzsiak only allowed two hits in five innings of work, but good situational hitting from the Leprechauns allowed them to put their first three runs on the board.
One such run came in the third on a Parker Picot RBI groundout and two scored in the fifth. Saborn Campbell hit a sacrifice fly during his Leprechaun debut and Ryan McKay scored on a wild pitch.
The seventh is when the offense truly came to life. Evan Bottone and McKay, two of Royal Oak’s best hitters, each made outs to begin the inning. The next five players ripped base hits against Kenosha’s Colin Hawkins, scoring four runs to make the game 7-0.
During the two-out rally, Picot and Cam Hollobaugh hit back-to-back RBI triples. Hollobaugh probably could have made it an inside-the-park home run. Before that, Royal Oak only had one triple all season.
Vance, who coaches third base, said Hollobaugh “definitely” should have gone home through a chuckle.
Either way, Matt Gonsalves hit Hollobaugh in with a single the following at-bat.
After completing the two-game sweep, Royal Oak will hit the road again. Its next two games will be at the Lakeshore Chinooks, followed by two games with the defending champion Green Bay Rockers.
Each game against Lakeshore is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. during the next two days.
Royal Oak’s next home game will be against the Traverse City Pit Spitters on June 18. That game will be the organization’s first game televised on ESPN+ and is the first game of a five-game, four-day homestand.
“I think we saw what we are capable of over these last three games,” Vance said.
