By: Noah Chavez
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – After splitting the two games at Memorial Park over the weekend, the Royal Oak Leprechauns and Traverse City Pit Spitters once again took a game apiece at Turtle Creek Stadium. On Monday night, it was a Leprechauns 6-4 victory, but the Pit Spitters’ seven-run eighth inning on Tuesday sealed their 8-4 win.
In game one, Royal Oak starter Drew Tolfree pitched well, allowing just three hits across six innings, while also surrendering three earned runs in the third inning.
While the Leprechauns offense did not score across the early parts of the game, left fielder Patrick Ilitch got the first two tallies on the scoreboard for the visitors, with a two-run single in the fifth.
While Traverse City would get one of those runs back and take a 4-2 lead going into the eighth inning, a barrage of hit batters and walks helped Royal Oak plate four runs. After a Nolan Alvord game-tying groundout, the biggest hit of the night came from center fielder Lucas Mead on his go-ahead two-RBI single to make it 6-4 in favor of the Leprechauns.
Recording the final nine outs in relief of Tolfree, right-hander Nathan Masar sealed the win for the Leprechauns, allowing just one hit across his three innings of work.
On Tuesday night in game two, Royal Oak held a 4-2 lead needing just six more outs to secure back-to-back road victories, but a persistent and patient Traverse City offense put across seven runs in the eighth inning to grab the comeback win.
For Leprechauns hitters, all nine starters reached base at least once, but newcomer Mason Barth stood out with a trio of hits including an RBI-double in the fifth. On the pitching side, righty Spencer Boynton had his best performance of the year, tossing 4.1 innings in relief and allowing just one run on two hits.
With the first off day of the season on Wednesday, the team returns to play Thursday night in Kenosha against the Kingfish. After the two-game trip to Historic Simmons Field, the team returns home to continue their series with Kenosha over the weekend. First pitch for Saturday’s game at Memorial Park is set for 6:35 p.m. ET.
Tickets can be purchased on the team’s website or at the gate. Fans can also follow the team across all social platforms to stay up to date.
