By Jacob Cotsonika
Despite only totaling three base hits, the Royal Oak Leprechauns were able to piece together a 5-4 win over the Kenosha Kingfish on Thursday night.
“Gritty (win),” Leprechaun manager Chris Faust said after the game. “Our plan was for Colton Jones (Florida Gulf Coast) to go more than one inning… Our bullpen, they stepped up big-time to keep us in that ballgame with us struggling offensively.”
The victory also comes after Kenosha started the day with six no-hit innings. With worry starting to seep through Memorial Park, Nolan Alvord (Grand Valley State) broke the ice with a leadoff single in the seventh to get Royal Oak into the hit column. Just one pitch later, Royal Oak’s second hit flashed on the scoreboard on a Max Orozco (Oakland) double. Three runs then came across from the next three batters, as Danny Cook (Pepperdine) reached on an error, Aidan Schuck (Oakland) whacked a single, and Preston Leon (Minnesota) recorded a sacrifice fly. That made it 5-3, Leprechauns.
“Once Alvord came up and got that hit, Orozco followed him up, and then we were able to put up three runs in that inning — it was like, ‘We’re winning this ballgame,’” Faust said.
But that leaves two mysterious runs without a hit unaccounted for. Both of those came across for Royal Oak in the bottom of the first inning. After the two first batters of the ballgame were retired for the home team, Kenosha starting pitcher Logan Borboa (CSU Bakersfield) walked one and plunked two hitters to load the bases. Owen Turner (Yale) then hit a ground ball to Kingfish second baseman Jacob Vokal (Davidson), who let it bounce away for an error, which allowed two unearned runs to score.
Beyond that gift in the first inning, the main reason the Leprechauns stuck around in this game was because of the performance from the team’s bullpen, particularly from two stellar debuts. Jones, Royal Oak’s starting pitcher, only survived the first inning after surpassing the 35-pitch limit.
After Gavin Moczydlowsky (Michigan State) allowed two runs in the third, the Leprechauns turned to Jovan Gill (Grand Valley State). In his first-ever game as a Leprechaun, Gill tossed four scoreless innings and only allowed one hit. It could have gone an entirely different direction. During Gill’s first inning on the bump, the Kingfish had the bases loaded and just one out, but Gill got a ground ball and the Leprechaun defense turned a critical double play to escape the jam.
“I went to the changeup there — good ground ball pitch,” Gill said. “It just worked out for me, and I think I just felt like I had confidence in that pitch now. That play kind of turned around the whole outing for me.”
In his first game with Royal Oak since 2023, Jake Coulter (Hope College) shut the door after Royal Oak took the lead by allowing one run across two frames, including a zero in the ninth while going up against the top of Kenosha’s order.
“This is my hometown, so this is special to close out a game here,” Coulter said about what getting the save in his season debut means to him. “It’s a team thing. I love the guys in there. We all get along together, so getting a win for them is good for me.”
The Leprechauns, who improved to 18-21 on the season and 1-2 in the second half with the victory, will now look to complete a two-game sweep of Kenosha on Friday, July 4 at 4:05 p.m. This game’s result dropped the Kingfish to 15-24 overall and 1-3 in the second half.
