MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Royals baseball team suffered a heart breaking loss Friday afternoon against conference opponent Florida Memorial University. After going down six runs in the first inning, the Royals battled back to take a 9-6 lead in the bottom of the ninth. Defensive miscues hindered the Royals and gave Florida Memorial their first Sun Conference win of the season.
Dalton Kelley started on the mound for the Royals and went two-thirds of an inning before giving way to Jose Hernandez. Kelley allowed six runs on five hits before his exit. Hernandez tossed four and a third scoreless innings for the Royals. Blaine Rhea came in, in the sixth inning and also allowed no runs in his two innings of work. Jordan Pike (0-3) goes on record for the loss after allowing four runs on two hits in the final inning of play.
Offensively, the Royals found a spark in the fifth inning. Broderick Rodocker drove in the first run of the game for the Royals with a double down the left field line that plated Chase Coon. Tomas Rivera smoked a double to the same spot for the visitors second run. Kevin Gregg and Chris Mejia both hit RBI singles in the inning to cut Florida Memorial's lead to 6-4.
After Rodocker doubled again in the top of the sixth to put the Royals within one run, the offense came alive again in the top of the seventh, scoring four more runs and giving them the lead for the first time in the game. Mejia, Torri Pringle, Rodocker, and Dylan Gross all drove in runs in the seventh.
Eight different bats combined for the Royals 18 hit performance. Tomas Rivera finished the game 4-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored. In his first game of the season, Chris Mejia went 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Torri Pringle also went 3-for-5 on Friday afternoon. Broderick Rodocker did his job as a lead-off hitter, going 3-for-6 with three RBIs. Chase Coon went 2-for-3 at the dish and did work on the base path, scoring three of the Royals 9 runs.
Florida Memorial rallied in the bottom of the ninth inning, scoring four runs to win the game 10-9. The loss drops the Royals to 5-16 overall on the season and 2-7 in Sun Conference play. The Lions improve to 4-14 overall and 1-6 in conference play with the victory.
The teams will return tomorrow to Harry T. Moore Baseball Field on the Campus of Florida Memorial for a double-header and the completion of the conference series. Game one of the double header is scheduled for an 11 a.m. first pitch.
