Six of Royal Oak’s nine offensive frames ended in three batters in the team’s 3-1 setback against Battle Creek on Sunday night.
“We kind of got shut down there,” said Leprechauns head coach Jonathan Vance, “[Jacob] Spencer threw the ball extremely well. He’s got good stuff and it’s just one of those days where the bats just didn’t come alive.”
Royal Oak’s lone run came in due to an error by Alex Fernandes in center field in the second, which allowed Michael Lareau to score from first after Tony Hatzigeorgiou lined it up the middle.
Spencer ended up giving seven stellar innings of work for Battle Creek in his first start of the Northwoods season, facing just three above the minimum. He entered having only thrown 5.2 innings this summer in three relief appearances.
The Leprechauns only scratched five hits across on Sunday after getting 12 in both games against Kalamazoo the prior two days. No Royal Oak player ended up with a multi-hit game.
Battle Creek only got five hits as well, including none through the first four innings. The difference in the game was that the Battle Jacks were much more opportunistic.
In the first, Fernandes drew a walk to open up the game. He ended up stealing second, before coming home after advancing on a groundout and sacrifice fly by Cayden Wotipka.
Fernandes ended up walking in all four of his plate appearances, getting his walk total to a Northwoods-leading 52 this summer. Battle Creek’s pitchers only issued one walk all game.
Battle Creek got its other two runs in the sixth and eighth innings. The sixth started with back-to-back walks for Fernandes and Mason Hamlin while Brandon Gutierrez made his Leprechaun debut on the mound. Fernandes and Hamlin executed a double steal, and Garrett Smith gave Battle Creek the lead again with a sacrifice fly.
Wotipka made it 3-1 with an RBI single in the eighth, with the Leprechauns cutting down Fernandes at the plate on the same play.
Royal Oak still had a chance to tie it in the eighth with runners on first and second and two outs. Ryan Tyranski hit a line drive that probably ties the game if the defense had not been shifted towards his pull side. The lefty ended up just lining out to right field to end the frame.
Battle Creek’s Justin Morgan shut the door in the ninth. Morgan picked up his league-leading 10th save as he set down Royal Oak’s 3-4-5 hitters in Parker Picot, Oliver Service and Lareau 1-2-3.
Optimism for Royal Oak lies in the start from Joe Turner. He only allowed one hit during his five innings of work and the one run in the first.
“I thought our pitching staff was outstanding tonight,” Vance said. “I thought we threw the ball really well.”
Despite the loss, it is the third time in July the Leprechauns have allowed three runs or less in a game. The other times were when the team held Battle Creek to three on the sixth and Kalamazoo to one on the 12th.
Royal Oak now falls to 26-23 overall and 8-6 in the second half.
The Leprechauns will look to bounce back against Battle Creek on Monday, this time on the road. Royal Oak will then travel back for a four-game homestand, with two games against the first half champion Rockford Rivets and Battle Creek again.
