Royal Oak’s Sudden Slugfest!

Early in the season the Leprechauns got walloped, even when their bats finally woke up. A rain‑suspended game from July was finished on Aug. 2, and Kenosha poured it on – scoring 22 runs by the 6th inning – to win 23–9. (It was a franchise record for the Kingfish.) Royal Oak did manage to swing for the fences late in that blowout – belting two home runs (indeed, the first time all year the Leps had hit more than one in a game) – but by then the game was far out of reach.

Thirty minutes after that game ended, Game 2 of the doubleheader began, and the Leprechauns evened the series in dramatic fashion. Royal Oak held on for a 6–5 win, thanks to late rally hits, and then exploded for a 12–7 victory on Sunday. In that Sunday game the offense really broke out – RO knocked the Kingfish starter out in the first inning and tacked on seven runs in the first two frames. Jovan Gill hit a home run and Jack Zebig hit his third homer of the season, and the Leprechauns never looked back.

These August games were part of an unprecedented power surge for Royal Oak. In fact, roughly half of the Leprechauns’ home runs on the season have come in the past couple of weeks. (By contrast, as noted above the team didn’t even hit two homers in a single game until late June.) A perfect illustration came at Kalamazoo on Aug. 7: Aidan Schuck went 4-for-5 with *two* home runs (including a grand slam), a triple and a double – driving in five runs – in a 12–10 win. (The night before they fell 10–2 at Kalamazoo, victimized by strong Growlers pitching.) In other words, Royal Oak’s offense has been feast-or-famine lately – just prior to this stretch they were struggling, and suddenly they’re crushing it.

Even the late July series against Battle Creek showed this trend. On July 29 the Leprechauns swept a doubleheader, winning 3–2 and 14–6. In the opener Royal Oak scored all three runs in one inning, including a solo homer by Nathan Ball. In the nightcap they put up 12 runs early and coasted. Then on July 30 Royal Oak blew out Battle Creek 20–10, racking up 21 hits. That game was powered by Rhett Roeser, who went 4-for-6 with a triple, a double and six RBIs. All told, those wins against Battle Creek and the Kalamazoo series helped make up much of Royal Oak’s late‑season power. (It’s no coincidence that so many runs have come in these recent games.)

In short, the Leprechauns have gone from anemic offense to sluggers almost overnight. The suspended rain‑delay game on Aug. 2 showed how badly they could lose, yet by the next day they were climbing back to .500 with wins in Game 2 and 3. Recent series losses – like 10–2 to Kalamazoo – have been offset by big wins (20–10 over Battle Creek, 12–10 over Kalamazoo), and almost all the home runs the team hit this year have come in that span. It’s been a weird roller-coaster: one stretch saw *the first time* two Leprechauns homered in a game, and in the very next days they were racking up long balls in bunches to break out of their doldrums.