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Royals pitcher Nick Nye struck out six batters in five innings on Wednesday.

Royals give scare to undefeated Braves, then run out of gas late

Jul 22, 2020 | 10:06 PM

The Prince Albert Royals looked like they were going to give the Saskatoon Braves their only blemish so far in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League Midget AA action. They had a 5-1 lead, but the Braves found their bats late and scored 15 runs in the final two innings to win 20-5.

The Royals had their 5-1 advantage after the first two innings as they got to Braves’ starting pitcher Keaton Strohan early.

Royals’ second baseman Ben Lefebvre reached on an error, then the Royals barrelled up three consecutive base hits from Brady Robin, Jack Mortimer, and a double from Josh LaClaire to go up 3-1.

Then in the second inning, Strohan loaded the bases with three straight walks and was replaced by Ben Heal. Robin drove in two with a hard ground ball single and extended the Royals’ lead to 5-1.

But Heal was able to settle things down for the Braves and keep the Royals off the scoresheet until the final inning. Heal didn’t surrender a run in five innings while registering 10 strikeouts. Joel Prefontaine closed it out with a scoreless seventh inning.

In that time, the Braves were able to scrap back into the game with runs in the third, fourth, and two in the fifth to tie it up after five innings. A combination of untimely errors and clutch Braves’ hitting saw the visitors score four runs in the top of the sixth to start to pull away. Gunner Tropeau hit his second triple of the game, then scored on a wild pitch, to give the Braves a 10-5 advantage in the top of the sixth inning.

The Braves added insult to injury by adding another 10 runs in the seventh inning to walk away with a 20-5 victory. The Braves improve to 7-0 on the year and are in first place. The Royals have lost their fifth consecutive game and are now 2-6.

Royals pitcher Nick Nye went five strong innings, surrendering five runs (just three earned), striking out six batters and walking just one.

The rest of the season so far

After the Royals opened up the season with a two-game split against the North Battleford Beavers on July 5 (13-2 win, 17-4 loss). Then the Royals got another doubleheader sweep against the Humboldt Dodgers, winning 14-8 and losing 12-6 on July 11 on the road. The Royals then lost their next three games, 11-1 to the Saskatoon Blue Jays on July 15 and 9-2 and 17-13 to the North Battleford Beavers on July 19.

For their next game, the Royals will travel to Lumsden on July 25 to take on the Weyburn Beavers and the Lumsden Cubs for a two-game set.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea