By Jacob Cotsonika
For the third straight day, the Royal Oak Leprechauns earned a comfortable win over the Rockford Rivets, this time putting together a 14-2 road victory on Sunday evening.
The Leprechauns had won the first two games of this four-game set at Memorial Park by scores of 11-2 on Friday and 11-6 on Saturday. Sunday’s 14-run performance marks the first instance in Royal Oak Leprechauns history of the team scoring 10 or more runs in three consecutive games.
Seven different Leprechauns recorded base hits on Sunday, but five Royal Oak players had two. Each of the top three batters in the lineup — Aidan Schuck (Oakland), Dylan Larkins (Georgetown), Ryan Tyranski (Cincinnati) — were all a part of that group. Schuck had three RBIs, a sacrifice fly, and two stolen bags to boot. Larkins and Tyranski also both walked three times, with the latter of the two also hitting in four runs.
The other two multi-hit days came from Jack Dauer (Yale) and Max Orozco (Oakland). Both players eventually came around to score twice as well, but Orozco also had four RBIs himself and a stolen bag.
Like many others, Dauer also reached base safely on free passes handed out by the Rivets’ pitching staff — he drew two walks and got hit by a pitch. Royal Oak as a whole drew 14 walks and four hit by pitches, a big reason for the large discrepancy on the scoreboard. Hits were 12-6 in favor of the Leps, with Royal Oak not recording an extra-base hit all game. In total, Rockford handed out 21 freebies (walks, hit by pitches and errors) compared to eight handed out by the Leprechauns.
The majority of this offensive onslaught was also in the early innings. Twelve of the Leprechauns’ runs came in the first five innings, where Royal Oak scored at least one run in all of those frames. One run scored in the first, two were in the second, four came in during both the third and fourth innings, and one more was added in the fifth. The team’s final two runs came in the ninth inning when a position player was pitching for Rockford.
Another thing that should not be lost in the shuffle is another solid day for the Royal Oak pitching staff. On a first-half contract and making his final start for the Leprechauns this summer, Justin Brown (Michigan) continued to pitch well. He allowed two runs (only one earned) over five innings of work, picking up the win and striking out seven.
Following that, Wyatt Ruppnethal (Kalamazoo College) handed in three scoreless innings in relief, striking out six to one walk and one HBP. Ethan LaPointe (Eastern Michigan) then put up one final zero in the bottom of the ninth.
This third consecutive convincing victory improves Royal Oak to 16-19 on the season, while the Rivets fall to 13-18. The Leprechauns also now take a 4-3 lead in the 12-game season series against Rockford this season after going 2-6 against the Rivets in 2024. These same two teams will finish off the first half of the Northwoods League season against each other on Monday night at 7:05 p.m. ET (6:05 p.m. CT). Following that, Royal Oak will begin its hunt for a second-half title on Tuesday with a six-game homestand.
