LAKE WALES, FL- The Royals hosted Cumberland University and Webber International University for their home openers starting off the season.

   The Royals looked to defend their home field after taking down the Pheonex a day prior in Babson Park, Fla. The Royals sent out senior Logan Hewitt looking for his first win of the season coming at home. Hewitt would be everything that the Royals wanted as he would record his first win of the season after 6 strong innings, allowing five hits, no walks, and 4 strikeouts; as well as letting his different work as he would have seven flyouts and six groundouts under his name for today. The Royals' offense would back up a strong start from Hewitt as they would score first in the bottom of the 3rd after a JJ Gonzalez groundout would score Triston Devane. In the 5th inning, Luis Cedeno singled up the middle allowing for Devane and Guevara to score. Later on in the inning, John Malcom singled scoring in Chris Fergueson extending the Royals lead to 4 to 0. In the bottom of the sixth inning, an error allowed for Guevara to score again and a few batters later, Fergueson would double down the left field line scoring in Julian Figueroa and Gonzalez. The Royals bullpen consisting of Justin Corns and Ryley Rozar would continue to silence the Phoenixes offense as the Royals would take victory in this one by a score of 7-0.

    Coming off a strong win earlier on in the day, The Royals looked to win at home against their rivals from Webber International University. Keeping up with the momentum from their game one victory, the Royals struck first as Ian Anderson would ground out scoring in Chisenhal. The Warriors would take the lead as a passed ball would score but in the bottom half of the 2nd inning, the Royals would take the lead as Auston Chisenhal would double down the left field line scoring in three runs and the next batter Danny Garcia would hit a sacrifice fly scoring Cedeno. The game would go back and forth but a big blow would come as the Warriors would hit a two run homerun in the top of the forth taking a 5-4 lead. The Warriors would keep applying pressure against the Royals, but the Royals would stay in the game as in the 7th inning, Garcia would single to the up the middle scoring in Chisenhal cutting the lead to three. In the bottom of the 8th inning, the Royals would continue fighting trying to complete the comeback. Garcia would strike again as he would single to the left center gap scoring in Vicente. Later in the inning, a wild pitch followed by a passed ball would score two more runs for the Royals as the game would tied at 8-8. In the top half of the ninth, Recio would hit a homerun giving the Warriors a late lead. With the Royals down 10-8, they looked to start a late game comeback, however they would go down in the ninth as they would fall just short in this game by a score of 10-8. The Royals look towards their next game as they face off against Oklahoma Wesleyan University on February 6th at 5:00 PM


INSIDE THE MATCH: Warner University vs Cumberland University
FINAL: Royals 7, Phoenix 0
RECORDS: Royals (2-1), Phoenix (0-3)

INSIDE THE MATCH: Warner University vs Webber International University
FINAL:  Royals 8, Warriors 10
RECORDS: Royals (2-2), Warriors (4-0)


MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

• Logan Hewitt would record his first win of the season after six scoreless innings, allowing five hits, no walks, and four strikeouts
• Danny Garcia is off to a great start for the Royals as he went  3-4 in game two with three RBI's
• Auston Chisenhal also found his groove at the plate as he recorded three RBI's, and recording three hits in as many at-bats
• Royals pitchers in game one would be dominant, showing off their command as they recorded only one walk in the 33 batters faced.

UP NEXT:
The Royals look towards their next game as they face off against Oklahoma Wesleyan University on Tuesday, February 6th at 5:00 PM.