Royal Oak’s Riley Frost hit a hard ground ball that had an entire ballpark thinking “tie game” with two outs and a runner on second base.
Instead, Kenosha’s Brandon Nigh made a shocking diving play to his right to grab the ground ball, throwing out Frost (North Georgia) at first to give the Kingfish a 4-3 win on Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a great play,” said Royal Oak head coach Jonathan Vance, who was standing right next to Nigh as the third base coach. “I told these guys after the game, anytime you’re going to lose on a web gem play, you’re just going to tip your cap and that’s just the game of baseball.”
Nigh also was a heavy contributor for Kenosha at the plate, going 2-for-4 and receiving an RBI on a sacrifice fly for the game’s deciding run in the seventh inning.
Despite the ultimate result, there are plenty of signs of optimism for the Leprechauns. They went from just six hits in a ten-run loss last night with 13 collective strikeouts to ten hits in a loss by a few inches and seven total strikeouts.
“I think we were right there,” Vance said. “Just a couple bounces didn’t go our way today.”
The big improvement from Monday’s drubbing came from the pitching staff; particularly the bullpen.
Michigan State’s Gavin Moczydlowsky came in relief during the fifth inning and gave up just one earned run in 3.2 innings to keep Royal Oak in the game. TJ McAllister Jr. (Wayne State) also handed in a scoreless ninth inning.
The Leprechauns also used only three total pitchers today, with Ryan Kruse (Valparaiso) being the starter. In comparison, they used six pitchers in the previous game against the Kingfish. Saving arms can be extremely vital, with four more games in the next three days.
“I thought the pitching staff looked really good,” Vance said. “The pitching staff, I would say, was a big bright spot today.”
Improvement was also visible offensively, despite an identical run total. Seven different Leprechauns recorded a hit. Ryan McKay (MSU), AJ Kostic (CMU), and Caden Duryea (Northwood) each had multiple hits.
Kostic had an RBI groundout in the fourth for Royal Oak’s first run. Ashland’s Collin Overholt and Duryea had back-to-back RBI singles in the sixth.
Overholt also had a great day in his season debut at catcher, throwing out a few runners at second from behind home plate.
The Leprechauns will now look to turn improvement into a first win. They will turn their attention to the Lakeshore Chinooks for two home games on May 29 and 30. Wednesday’s game starts at 6:35 p.m., and Thursday’s begins at 11:05 a.m.
“[It’s] getting accustomed, getting our feet back under us, playing consistent baseball, and we’re gonna be alright,” Vance said.
