Photo: Casey Burke, Royal Oak Leprechauns

By Noah Chavez

ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Holding a narrow lead atop the Great Lakes East standings, the Royal Oak Leprechauns maintained their advantage with a series split against the Green Bay Rockers over the weekend.

In the opener on Saturday night, the Leprechauns jumped ahead at the start and cruised to a victory, taking the game by a 9-2 final score.

After Connor Larkin gave Royal Oak a 1-0 lead in the first, back-to-back homers from Luke Kosko and Kam Yearsley powered a four-run third inning.

The Leprechauns would go on to score in three of the next four innings, and combined with a brilliant start on the mound from Jack Sequin, had no trouble in the back half of the game.

In what was Sequin’s best start of the summer, the righty tossed 6.2 innings, allowing just one run and striking out five opposing hitters.

In relief, both Danny Newman and Erich Daigle pitched well to keep the team ahead, and finished off the night with only one hit allowed in the combined ten hitters they faced.

Looking for the sweep in game two of the series, the Rockers had more success with the longball than in game one, homering four times on the night and escaped with a narrow 8-6 win.

After falling into a 5-0 hole, the Leprechauns rallied for a four-run fourth inning to get right back into the game, but some late runs in the fifth and seventh innings for Green Bay proved to be too much for a comeback.

Offensively, it truly was a collective team effort, as Michael Zielinski was the only Royal Oak hitter with multiple hits and RBIs, collecting two of each. 

Now with six games remaining in the regular season, the Leprechauns sit in a tie with the Traverse City Pit Spitters based on record, but hold the tiebreaker based on wins in the head-to-head games the teams played this season.

With their final road trip of the regular season upcoming, the team will play four games away from Memorial Park before returning home for its last homestand, beginning Friday, August 7, against the Kalamazoo Growlers. First pitch from The Lucky Corner 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.