Rockford cruised to a win in its first-ever game at Memorial Park, utilizing seven runs in the first two innings in an 8-3 final Tuesday night against the Leprechauns.
“We just have to be prepared from the jump,” said Royal Oak head coach Jonathan Vance. “I thought it kind of took us three or four innings to kind of get going on the defensive side of things. We just didn’t make plays today.”
The first seven runs for Rockford came through five hits, three walks, and three Royal Oak errors during those two innings. Starting pitcher Ryan Kruse committed two and third baseman Tony Hatzigeorgiou committed another.
Three came in the first for the Rivets after an RBI single by NWL All-Star Maddox Mihalakis and a two-run homer by Bobby Atkinson.
The following inning, four more came across after two runs scored on some of those Leprechaun errors and Mihalakis and Atkinson each tacked on an extra RBI on singles.
Despite just two innings from Kruse, the silver lining for the Leprechauns was that they only needed to use one more arm for the final seven frames.
“The best part about today was Nolan Coil,” Vance said.
Coil provided his best performance as a Leprechaun, handing in those seven innings with just one run, five hits and one walk allowed.
“Coil was absolutely electric,” Vance said. “He was great. He gave us a huge lift.”
The Calvin College product worked very efficiently, throwing only 75 pitches during his entire outing, 50 being strikes.
Despite Coil holding the score at 7-0 for a while, Royal Oak did not plate a run until the seventh inning, after Rockford made it 8-0 in the top half of the frame. The Leprechauns also scored a singular run in each of the eighth and ninth frames.
The team had earlier chances. Royal Oak’s day at the plate started with back-to-back singles by Michael Lareau and Ryan Tyranski. Saborn Campbell grounded into a double play and Jayden Lopez then struck out to end the first. The Leprechauns could not score after runners got into scoring position in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.
After those first two hits, Royal Oak went 23 completed plate appearances without a base hit. Royal Oak’s first two hits came in the first with no outs. The third was a triple by Collin Overholt with two outs in the seventh. Overholt ended up scoring Royal Oak’s first run on a wild pitch.
Another bright spot was the debut of catcher George Athanasiadis. The Merrimack Warrior hit an RBI single in the eighth and also reached on a hit by pitch during the sixth.
“George looked good behind the plate,” Vance said. “He receives the ball really well, he was very vocal. He was really talking with our pitchers, I really liked that.”
Regardless of the signs for optimism, the Leprechauns have now lost three straight games for the first time since June 5-7. The third loss of that prior streak was also against Rockford. The team responded with a 9-4 victory the following day.
Royal Oak sees Rockford again on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
“Just gotta come out right away,” Vance said. “If we eliminate those first two innings, we win that game 3-1 there. We just have to be ready from the jump.”
Following that, the Leprechauns host Battle Creek on Thursday and Friday, with both games set for 6:35 p.m.
