The Royal Oak Leprechauns extended a win streak to four games for the first time this year, beating the Green Bay Rockers 9-7 on Sunday night.
“It’s awesome,” Michael Lareau said. “Coming to the field every day with these guys is great. It makes you want to play and it just makes winning even more fun with these guys because we like to celebrate it.”
Lareau went 3-for-3, recording two RBIs on a single in the sixth and scored himself twice. It is his fourth three-hit game in 19 appearances.
Sunday was a second consecutive comeback victory for Royal Oak. It overcame a 5-1 deficit Sunday and trailed 3-0 the night before.
“[The comebacks are] definitely stressful,” said Leprechauns head coach Jonathan Vance. “But as long as we come out on top, I’m ok with it.”
Sunday’s game was also a breakout night for a Royal Oak offense that had struggled lately. The Leprechauns had not had this high of an offensive output since game one of a doubleheader with Traverse City on June 19. They had been averaging less than three runs per game in the ten games since.
“It was just a matter of time before these guys erupted,” Vance said. “We have too many good hitters in our lineup for us to have a week where we don’t have a game like this.”
The eruption came at a good time, as the seven runs allowed is also the most runs a team has gotten vs Royal Oak since game one of June 19.
“We scrap,” Nate Ball said about the offense playing well with the pitching down. “We’re just so bonded together. We know each other super well, and we fight.”
Ball hit his first home run of the season tonight. His bomb cleared the right field fence to cut Royal Oak’s deficit to one in the fifth.
“It’s been a while,” Ball said. “[I’ve] been in a long slump. But there’s nothing better than being able to finally contribute to the team and see one go over the fence here at the Lucky Corner.”
The Leprechauns built from Ball’s round-tripper, grabbing a 6-5 lead later in the frame on a two-RBI single by Brock Olmstead.
Olmstead plated the ninth run on the night for Royal Oak in the following frame after Lareau’s 2-RBI single. Lareau had been able to advance to third on the play due to an error in the outfield.
As a team, eight of nine hitters recorded a hit for the Leprechauns.
Oliver Service, coming off his walk-off single on Saturday, had a second consecutive multi-hit game. Tony Hatzigeorgiou and Olmstead, who had three RBIs, also had two-hit days alongside Lareau’s three.
Royal Oak has now completed a season sweep of the defending NWL champions. The Leprechauns had beaten Green Bay twice on the road on June 15 and 16 and have now taken two more at the Lucky Corner.
A potential five-game win streak awaits Monday, as Royal Oak, now 18-15, will play host to the Kalamazoo Growlers. First pitch is slated for 6:35 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN+.
