THOMASVILLE, Ga. - Royals Baseball won their first series of the season after splitting their double-header against the Night Hawks on Saturday, winning their first game 7-to-1 and dropping the final game of the series 5-to-4.
Game 1: Royals Win 7-1
The Royals picked up where they left off on Saturday afternoon with a Solo Home Run off the bat of
Jhenzel Figueroa to get the scoring started in the 1st Inning. After a quiet next few innings, Warner was able to string together a 3 run rally that started with a
Danny Garcia RBI single that drove in Figueroa. Royals base-running continues to give opposing teams issues as Garcia stole home during a double steal with
Garrett Gregory for the Royals 3rd run of the game.
Samuel Blanco later drove in Gregory with an RBI single to left field to give the Royals a 4-0 lead. Thomas responded with a run of their own in the 5th, but were unable to create any more offense in Saturday's opening game. Warner tacked on 3 more insurance runs in the Top of the 7th when Figueroa hit an RBI single for
Horiam Santiago to score before
Gabriel Rodriguez hit a 2 RBI double into left bringing the Royals to a 7-to-1 lead.
The Royals pitching staff threw a gem on Saturday holding the Night Hawks to only 1 run on 7 hits.
Harper McLendon as he earned his 1st win as a Royal throwing a near perfect 3 scoreless innings only allowing 1 hit while recording no walks in his start on Saturday.
Aidan Murphy recorded his 1st save of the season as he pitched 1.2 Innings in relief for the Royals allowing only 3 hits and no runs to close out the game for Warner.
Warner Stat Leaders - Game 1
Hits: Jhenzel Figueroa - 3
RBI's: Jhenzel Figueroa &
Gabriel Rodriguez - 2
Stolen Bases: Danny Garcia - 2
GAME 2: Royals Fall 5-4
After falling behind 4-0 after 3 Innings, the Royals were able to cut the Night Hawks lead in half during the 6th Inning. Warner was able to string together a series of good at bats that lead to a Figueroa RBI single to drive in
Carlito Collins for the Royals 1st run of the game before
Horiam Santiago was able to score on a wild pitch to cut the lead to 4-2. Thomas answered back with another run in the Bottom of the 6th to take a 5-2 lead into the final innings. The Royals refused to go down without a fight scoring a run in the 8th on an RBI single by
JD Swarbrick and then drove in their 4th run when
Adriel Torres-Gonzalez grounded out to 2B, which allowed Olivera to score. Warner was able to get the tying run to 3rd, but were unable to bring him home before the final out.
Warner will look to continue to build on the strong weekend when the take on Ave Maria on the road this weekend.
Warner Stat Leaders - Game 2
The Royals spread out the share of stats in Game 2 seeing 6 different players record a hit, 4 players record an RBI, and both pitchers recorded 2 strikeouts.
Up Next:
The Royals will play their 1st SUN Conference series of the season when they travel to
Ave Maria University to play a 4 Game series. Game 1 will be played on
Thursday, Feb. 19th at 6:00pm, while
Friday, Feb. 20th with see a double-header with the game times scheduled for
3:00pm and 6:00pm and the Series finale will be played on
Saturday, Feb. 21st at 1:00pm.
#GodBlessGoRoyals | #TogetherAsOne
