{"id":18395,"date":"2025-07-02T02:04:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T02:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/royal-oak-leprechauns\/?p=18395"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:04:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T02:04:23","slug":"royal-oak-opens-second-half-with-3-1-loss-to-traverse-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/royal-oak-leprechauns\/2025\/07\/02\/royal-oak-opens-second-half-with-3-1-loss-to-traverse-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Oak opens second half with 3-1 loss to Traverse City"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jacob Cotsonika<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Royal Oak Leprechauns ended up on the wrong end of a quick, low-scoring affair in a 3-1 decision against the Traverse City Pit Spitters<\/a> on Tuesday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

This faceoff was the opening contest for both teams in the second half of the Northwoods League season. The Pit Spitters won the Great Lakes East title for the first half with a 21-13 record, clinching a playoff spot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There were only seven combined hits between the two teams all game, the difference was that Traverse City made its runners count. Royal Oak\u2019s lone run of the contest came in the first inning on an RBI groundout from Tristan Crane<\/a> (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Traverse City\u2019s four hits came in just three innings. Two of them came in the Pit Spitters\u2019 two-run fifth inning that gave them the lead, which was also aided by a two-out error by Royal Oak. The Spitters then got its third run on its third hit of the day on an RBI double for Brandon Sanchez<\/a> (Northern Colorado) after a walk and a stolen base for Alfredo Velazquez<\/a> (Wayne State) gave Traverse City a RISP opportunity. The Pit Spitters got a hit in the ninth as well, but that runner was ultimately stranded.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From the second inning and beyond, the Leprechauns\u2019 only base hits came from Nolan Alvord<\/a> (Grand Valley State) in the fifth and Jack Dauer<\/a> (Yale) in the seventh.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean the Leprechauns never had chances in this game. In the sixth, Preston Leon<\/a> (Minnesota) stood at second and with no outs. On a 2-2 pitch, Ryan Tyranski<\/a> (Cincinnati) struck out swinging while Leon was headed for third. Leon beat the throw, but slid over the bag and was tagged out, with Royal Oak’s misfortune essentially killing the inning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just an inning later, Royal Oak had two runners in scoring position and just one away, but a lineout to the shallow outfield and a groundout ended the frame.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the ninth, the Leprechauns were able to get the tying run to first with two away, but nothing went for that, as Alvord struck out swinging to end the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the loss though, Royal Oak got several strong pitching performances. Micah Smith<\/a> (Bowling Green) tossed three no-hit innings in his Leprechaun debut, striking out three in the process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMicah, he started out the game and threw a lot of first-pitch strikes and was really confident just going at guys with the fastball, which I love to see,\u201d Royal Oak manager Chris Faust said about Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grant Essig<\/a> (Grand Valley State) followed him up by allowing just one earned run (two total) over four innings out of the bullpen. It was a big outing for Essig, as he has mightily improved as this season has progressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see it in his body language,\u201d Faust said. \u201cHe\u2019s super confident in himself right now and it\u2019s showing each time he goes back out there. He\u2019s just getting better every appearance and it is really fun to watch him be successful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick Brady<\/a> (Thomas) also provided a scoreless top of the ninth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Two other debuts included those of Logan Ion<\/a> (Cuyahoga CC) and Danny Cook<\/a> (Pepperdine). Ion allowed one run while pitching in the eighth and Cook went 0-for-2 at the plate with a walk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIon was very competitive in the zone, as well,\u201d Faust said about the other debuts. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t shying away from any competition. It was good to see those guys (Smith and Ion) in the zone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDanny Cook, it was nice to see him play a good, solid second base. All three, good competitors so far.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With this defeat, Royal Oak now falls to 17-20 on the season and is 0-1 to start the second-half playoff chase. Traverse City improved to 22-13 and 1-0. The Leprechauns do still lead the season series 3-2, though, but the Pit Spitters will have the chance to tie it during a rematch in Royal Oak at 6:35 p.m. on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following that, the Leprechauns will still remain home for another four days with a couple two-game sets against the Kenosha Kingfish (July 3-4) and the Rockford Rivets (July 5-6).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jacob Cotsonika The Royal Oak Leprechauns ended up on the wrong end of a quick, low-scoring affair in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":18396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[170,169,30,51,143,29,79],"class_list":["post-18395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-day","tag-grant-essig","tag-micah-smith","tag-northwoods-league","tag-nwl","tag-nwl-baseball","tag-royal-oak-leprechauns","tag-traverse-city-pit-spitters"],"yoast_head":"\nRoyal Oak opens second half with 3-1 loss to Traverse City - Royal Oak Leprechauns<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Leprechauns' previously-hot offense was quiet in the first game of the second half in the NWL season during a defeat versus Traverse City.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/royal-oak-leprechauns\/2025\/07\/02\/royal-oak-opens-second-half-with-3-1-loss-to-traverse-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Royal Oak opens second half with 3-1 loss to Traverse City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Leprechauns' previously-hot offense was quiet in the first game of the second half in the NWL season during a defeat versus Traverse City.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/royal-oak-leprechauns\/2025\/07\/02\/royal-oak-opens-second-half-with-3-1-loss-to-traverse-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Royal Oak Leprechauns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-02T02:04:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/assets.northwoodsleague.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/07\/Aidan-Schuck.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1199\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"799\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jacob Cotsonika\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jacobcotsonika\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jacob Cotsonika\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/royal-oak-leprechauns\/2025\/07\/02\/royal-oak-opens-second-half-with-3-1-loss-to-traverse-city\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/royal-oak-leprechauns\/2025\/07\/02\/royal-oak-opens-second-half-with-3-1-loss-to-traverse-city\/\",\"name\":\"Royal Oak opens second half with 3-1 loss to Traverse City - 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