By Jacob Cotsonika
Seven runs in the first two frames and nine in the first four innings were enough for the Royal Oak Leprechauns to earn a 9-3 victory over the Rockford Rivets on Saturday night.
With an offense that had been scuffling in the early part of the second half, Royal Oak pieced together a big, four-run first inning where every batter that came aboard did so with two outs in the frame. Jack Dauer (Yale) hit a two-RBI single, Parker McDaniels (Cincinnati) worked a bases-loaded walk, and another run came through on a wild pitch.
In the second, Preston Leon (Minnesota) and Dauer both whacked RBI doubles, with Owen Turner (Yale) hitting in a third run with an RBI single to make it 7-0, Leprechauns.
“It’s huge,” Royal Oak field manager Chris Faust said about the offensive performance. “We’ve taken good at-bats against Traverse City and Kenosha in the past two series, but nothing seemed to click. We haven’t gotten our offense going. Tonight, it seemed like everything was going for us.”
It also helped that Royal Oak got one of its best starts from a pitcher this season, if not the best. Preston Barr (Michigan) faced 12 batters. He sat all of them down, nine of them via the strikeout.
“The sequencing was huge tonight,” Barr said about his debut. “Parker (McDaniels) behind the dish called a good game. I started with a lot of off-speed early, got up in counts, and the fastball up was really (the pitch) for me today. I was able to spot that and get some swings and misses and get some strikeouts.”
Once Barr’s day was done, the Leprechauns were able to tack on two more in the bottom half of the fourth through a bases-loaded walk of Turner and a hit by pitch of McDaniels in the same situation.
Out of the bullpen for Royal Oak came Jake Coulter (Hope). Rockford loaded the bases on him, but Coulter was able to escape the jam. All three of the Rivets’ runs came in the sixth inning with Nick Brady (Thomas) on the bump for the Leprechauns. Rockford also only had two hits all day, which both were from the bat of Tommy Townsend (Butler) — a double in the fifth and a two-RBI single in the sixth.
Following that, it was all Gavin Moczydlowsky (Michigan State) for Royal Oak on the mound. “Muzzy” worked three no-hit innings, allowing only one baserunner, to close the door and receive his first save this summer. He also struck out six.
“He stepped up,” Faust said. “He knew that he had somewhat of a short leash and a lower pitch count tonight because he had thrown just about two days ago. I told him, ‘Hey, just be efficient. Get quick outs.’ And that’s exactly what he did.
Moczydlowsky only needed 34 pitches to get through the final three innings.
Another notable performance came from Ryan Tyranski (Cincinnati). Despite only entering the game with five stolen bases in 37 appearances this summer, Tyranski swiped four bags on Saturday. It is just the second four-SB performance in Leprechauns history and the first since they joined the Northwoods League. He reached base four times in five plate appearances by hitting a single and walking three times.
Royal Oak now improves to 19-22 overall and 2-3 in the second half. The Rivets fell to 17-21 on the year, but are 4-2 during the second half and still hold an early lead in the Great Lakes East standings in the race for the sub-division’s second playoff spot.
The Leprechauns and Rockford will meet again on Sunday afternoon at 4:05 p.m. at The Lucky Corner.
