{"id":19581,"date":"2026-08-16T14:41:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T18:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/royal-oak-leprechauns\/?p=19581"},"modified":"2026-08-16T14:42:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T18:42:39","slug":"royal-oak-leprechauns-capture-first-northwoods-league-championship-in-franchise-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwoodsleague.com\/royal-oak-leprechauns\/2026\/08\/16\/royal-oak-leprechauns-capture-first-northwoods-league-championship-in-franchise-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Royal Oak Leprechauns Capture First Northwoods League Championship in Franchise History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>ROYAL OAK, Mich. \u2014 August 16, 2026 \u2014<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Royal Oak Leprechauns are Northwoods League Champions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Leprechauns defeated the St. Cloud Rox, 3\u20131, Thursday night in St. Cloud, Minn., capturing the first Northwoods League Championship in franchise history and completing a historic postseason run for the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Royal Oak entered the postseason after earning its first playoff berth in franchise history. The Leprechauns opened the playoffs with a best-of-three series against the Kenosha Kingfish, clinching the series on the road in Kenosha, Wis., to advance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">From there, the postseason shifted to a single-elimination format. The Leprechauns traveled to Madison, Wis., for the Great Lakes Division Championship, where they defeated the Madison Mallards to earn a spot in the Northwoods League Championship Game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Thursday\u2019s championship game, Royal Oak trailed St. Cloud 1\u20130 before breaking through with three runs in the eighth inning to take a 3\u20131 lead. The Leprechauns held the Rox scoreless in the ninth to secure the championship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Luke Kosko (University of Cincinnati) went 2-for-4 with two RBI, while Connor Larkin (University of Oklahoma) went 1-for-3 and scored a run. Jack Sequin delivered six scoreless innings on the mound, and Liam Baker earned the win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI couldn\u2019t be prouder of this group and everything they accomplished this summer,\u201d said DJ LeMahieu, President and Manager of the Royal Oak Leprechauns. \u201cOur players and coaches bought in from day one, and so many people behind the scenes worked incredibly hard to make this season possible.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The championship caps a landmark season for the Leprechauns, which included the organization\u2019s first postseason appearance, first playoff series victory, first Great Lakes Division Championship and now its first Northwoods League Championship.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ROYAL OAK, Mich. \u2014 August 16, 2026 \u2014 The Royal Oak Leprechauns are Northwoods League Champions. The Leprechauns defeated the  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":19584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-team-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Royal Oak Leprechauns Capture First Northwoods League Championship in Franchise History - Royal Oak Leprechauns<\/title>\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\/2026\/08\/16\/royal-oak-leprechauns-capture-first-northwoods-league-championship-in-franchise-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Royal Oak Leprechauns Capture First Northwoods League Championship in Franchise History\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ROYAL OAK, Mich. \u2014 August 16, 2026 \u2014 The Royal Oak Leprechauns are Northwoods League Champions. 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