By: Noah Chavez
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. – As the first half of the Northwoods League season came to a close on Monday night, the Royal Oak Leprechauns ended it with a two-game winning sweep of the Battle Creek Battle Jacks.
In the penultimate game of the half on Sunday, Royal Oak hosted one of its wildest games of the summer thus far, a 13-12 walk-off for the home side after 10 innings. Although the Leprechauns led going into the middle innings, the Battle Jacks rallied to grab the lead at the end of the seventh.
Trailing 12-10 in the bottom of the eighth, Luke Kosko cut the deficit in half with his ninth home run of the season. Down to their final three outs, Lucas Mead, who had already drawn five walks on the day, grabbed his first hit of the day on a game-tying RBI double to even the score at 12-12.
In extra innings, right-hander Kellen English got into a bases-loaded jam after recording the first two outs, but escaped with no runs allowed to complete a third scoreless inning of relief.
In the bottom of the 10th, Tate Deal executed a sacrifice bunt to move the automatic baserunner, Michael Zielinski, over to third base. The next hitter, Mateo Noto, grounded a ball over to second base and even with a quick throw home, a head-first slide from Zielinski to avoid the tag gave Royal Oak the walk-off win.
On Monday night in the first-half finale, the Leprechauns scored plenty of runs once again in a win, just with less late-game drama, securing a 12-6 victory in Battle Creek.
Newcomer Connor Larkin made an impact immediately, collecting two extra-base hits in his first game with the team, including a long home run to right-center field in the third inning.
Along with Larkin, the rest of the offense was producing in bunches, with Luke Kosko adding two doubles and three RBIs to his season total, and Jack Dauer also grabbing a homer for his second of the summer.
With the first half now complete, the Leprechauns will come back home and begin the second half in the same fashion they began the season: with a six-game homestand. On Tuesday night, the Kalamazoo Growlers come to Memorial Park for the first time this season to begin a two-game midweek series. First pitch from The Lucky Corner is scheduled 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.
