Royals Season Starts at 0-2

By Nathan McShinsky

A snowy start to the baseball season left the South Royalton Royals stuck inside a gym to practice for about a month and canceled all of their scrimmages. The Royals finally got their season under way with two consecutive home games after only a week of practicing outside on the field. 

The Royals have a big squad this year allowing them to have a JV team as well as varsity. The whole Royals squad has five seniors: Nate McShinsky, Kris Ferris, Dale Manning, Darren Slack, and Jake Thomas. There are nine juniors: Tyrell Manning, Tyler Manning, Miles Ellis, Dustin Parker, Cody Welch, Andrew Picken, Jarred Sherlock, Zach Witts, and Buck Russell. The team is rounded out by one sophomore, Tarkin Clark, and four freshmen: Devin Cilley, Dakota Stender, Logan White, and Daniel Caron.

Season Opener

The Royals started by hosting Enosberg on Saturday, April 21, with typical first-game jitters. The Royals ended up on the short end of the stick, 9-4, after Enosberg put together a four-run first and a two-run second. The Royals mastered just a lone run in each of the first two innings. 

SoRo committed four errors that allowed three unearned runs in the first inning and another error that allowed another run across the plate in the second as Dustin Parker pitched the first two innings for the Royals giving up five hits, two earned runs, six unearned and striking out one. Parker gave way to Tyler Manning who pitched the final five innings with seven K's, that included striking out the side in the third, five hits, three walks, one earned run as the other two were unearned due to three more errors over the final five innings. 

On the offensive side of things the Royals put together four hits, with Miles Ellis getting an RBI double.

Loss vs. Hartford

The Royals hosted Division I Hartford on Monday with a chance to pick up some big index points and get back to an early .500, but it didn't quite work out that way as they lost a close one, 4-3.

The Royals again committed seven errors that led to all four unearned Hartford runs. 

South Royalton took a 1-0 lead after one inning of play after Tyler Manning singled home Tyrell Manning who had doubled to reach base. SoRo hung on to that 1-0 lead throughout the next four innings. In the sixth, the Royals committed four errors that lead to three unearned runs and before they could get the third out of the inning, the damage was done and it was 3-1 Hartford. 

The Royals bounced back in the bottom of the inning with two consecutive walks by Cody Welch and Nate McShinsky who would both score on a Tyler Manning double and a Miles Ellis ground out, which tied it up heading into the 7th inning. In the seventh inning. Hartford's Matt Pause led off with a single and then scored on the Royals seventh error of the game to give them the go ahead run and eventually the winning run as The Royals went down in the seventh by three strikeouts, stranding a man on first.

McShinsky started for the Royals and pitched six innings, 77 pitches, facing 28 batters with three strikeouts, allowing five hits, and three unearned runs with no walks and only one Hartford batter got to a three-ball count. This included a four-pitch fourth inning, where the first pitch of the inning was a ball before Darren Slack caught the next two pitches, which were hit to centerfield, and the fourth pitch was caught by left fielder Dale Manning. Tyler Manning threw the seventh inning, and was 2-3 with two RBI's and Buck Russell walked and had a hit.

Royals Coach Marty Adams said, "We played the first two games of the season and took the good things from both of them away, but they are behind us now and they were like scrimmages for us since ours were canceled due to the snowy weather."

The Royals hosted Rochester on Wednesday night and hosts Rivendell and Chelsea at Alumni Field on Friday, April 27 and Tuesday, May 1.