By Jacob Cotsonika

After entering the top of the ninth with a 3-2 lead against Madison, the Royal Oak Leprechauns allowed the Mallards to hit into a four-run outburst during the game’s final frame in what ended up being a tough-to-swallow 6-4 loss on Thursday night.

In fact, Madison initially had nobody on with one out and a 1-2 count after Parker McDaniels (Cincinnati) back-picked a Mallards baserunner at first. Following that, Brady Baalaer (Saginaw Valley State) threw three straight balls to Jordy Lopez (Cal) for a walk. Madison’s Jimmy Anderson (Heartland CC) then doubled him home on the very next pitch. With the game still tied, Baalaer was able to work out number two before walking another walk and then surrendering a two-RBI triple against Carson Hansen (Kentucky). Another run eventually came across to make things 6-3, Mallards. Hendershot did eventually come in after Madison had taken the lead and got the final out of the frame.

One of the things hovering over the big inning is that Leprechaun manager Chris Faust opted to put in Baalaer instead of Royal Oak’s usual starter, Fischer Hendershot (Eastern Michigan). Entering Thursday, Baaler had an ERA above nine — although he had been good in his prior two outings — whereas Hendershot already had three saves on the season and an ERA at 1.80. 

“We played a hell of a game overall,” Faust said. “It just didn’t end up going our way in the end in that last inning. As a manager, I’ve gotta reflect on that one and look at all of the ways that I could’ve managed that game better.

“On the pitching side, I know that Fischer (Hendershot) has been awesome for us, and I think he was ready for that moment and I could’ve been better at getting him in there earlier.”

Even despite the gut punch in the top of the ninth, Royal Oak did still make things interesting in the bottom half of the inning. The Leprechauns began the inning with three consecutive singles to load the bases and have the tying run on first with nobody out. Madison’s Joe Husak (Iowa commit) shut the door thereafter, though. Husak ended the game by going strikeout, strikeout, walk (with a RBI attached for Parker McDaniels), strikeout with the tying run at second.

Royal Oak also had more opportunities to get more runs on the board. The Leprechauns ended up stranding 14 men on bases and left at least two out on the basepaths from the sixth inning onward.

The silver lining is the much improved day from the Royal Oak pitching staff up until the ninth inning. Royal Oak used three pitchers during the first eight innings and got good stuff from all of them. Gabe Jones (Ball State) allowed just one earned run (two total) over 3.2 innings of work, which was followed by 2.1 and 2.0 innings with no damage from Ethan LaPointe (Eastern Michigan) and Gavin Moczydlowsky (Michigan State), respectively.

Despite that, it is still Royal Oak’s second straight loss to the Mallards and its fifth defeat in six contests. The Leprechauns now have a three day road trip that will feature the fourth and final regular season meeting between Royal Oak and Madison on Friday before heading off to play back-to-back games at Rockford on Saturday and Sunday. Royal Oak now sits at 8-9 on the season.

The Leprechauns’ next home game will be against the Wausau Woodchucks on Monday, June 16 at 6:35 p.m. ET.