Royal Oak picked up a 4-3 nail-biting, must-have win against the Battle Creek Battle Jacks on Friday night.
“We can win any type of ballgame we’re in,” said Leprechauns head coach Jonathan Vance. “Whether it’s a hitter’s duel, pitching duel, one where you gotta run and steal bases, it doesn’t matter. I like our chances.”
The Leprechauns scratched the win across through a stellar outing from Joe Turner and by winning the battle on the basepaths.
Turner’s gem resulted in a season-high six innings with five strikeouts and only one hit and one run allowed.
“It felt good today,” Turner said. “I felt great out there.”
Three of Turner’s last four appearances have come against the Battle Jacks. The Sterling Heights native has only allowed two earned runs across 16 innings across those three showings against Battle Creek. All three of those games ended with just three Battle Creek runs, and all were tight matchups.
“I like a pitcher’s duel,” Turner said. “It gives me extra motivation to be better than [the opposing pitcher] out there.”
Despite another elite start on the mound, Royal Oak still needed to find a way to manufacture runs after only getting five hits during the game.
The Leprechauns ended up going six-for-six on stolen base attempts.
“A couple of their arms were a little slower to the plate,” Vance said. “Their catcher wasn’t as quick to release as some of the other guys in the league, so definitely something we wanted to take advantage of.”
Royal Oak’s first run of the game came after Alex Cheeseman forced an errant throw by stealing second, allowing him to move to third with no outs in the first. He scored after Ryan Tyranski grounded into a fielder’s choice.
Trae Cassidy also made his presence felt multiple ways during his debut as a Leprechaun. The Ohio Bobcat stole two bases and threw out two Battle Jacks on the basepaths while playing catcher on defense.
Three of the Leprechauns’ five hits and the other three runs came in the sixth. The inning featured three different stolen bases from three different Leprechauns, an RBI triple by Michael Lareau and a two-RBI single from Tony Hatzigeorgiou. That inning made a 1-1 game into a 4-1 Leprechaun lead.
Battle Creek made its comeback attempt in the eighth. Tommy Szczepanski II and Stephen Ruhle combined for four walks in the frame. Cayden Wotipka and Silas Shaffer each hit RBI singles to make it 4-3.
The fourth walk loaded the bases with two outs. The tying run stood 90 feet from home and go-ahead runs were on second and first. Ruhle got Jacob Brown to fly out to Lareau in center field to end the frame and hold the lead.
Ruhle also got the ninth. He made quick work, sitting down Battle Creek in order and striking out NWL All-Star Alex Fernandes to end the game.
“It was really good to see the Stephen Ruhle we’ve been looking for all year in that ninth inning,” Vance said.
The Leprechauns now take consecutive wins with them to the road. Royal Oak plays a two-game set with Kenosha on Saturday and Sunday to go into the all-star break. After that, the team plays three more road games prior to returning home against the Kalamazoo Growlers on July 28.
