The Redlegs (1-1) and Royals (2-0) met up for their first
affair of the 2019 season on Sunday and while the Redlegs
walked away with two victories, the Royals produced some
hefty offensive innings that kept both games interesting.
Camden sent Michael Cookson to the mound in game one to
square off against his former club, and he turned in
quite the effort in his first start for the Redlegs.
Cookson turned in 6 solid innings of work, allowing only
1 earned run while striking out 11. The Royals wouldn’t
let Cookson finish them off and provided quite the fight
in the 7th as they put 5 quick runs on the board before
the Redlegs turned to the bullpen.
While Cookson was cruising early on, the Redlegs offense
provided plenty of support. Matt Morrison tripled to
start the game, followed by a double by Jacob Robinson.
Mike Hartman would later drive in a run with a single
before Saige Micomonaco belted his first home run of the
season, his first of 7 hits on the day. Back-to-back
doubles by Nick Davis and birthday boy James Robinson
netted another run, and when the dust settled the Redlegs
were up 5-0 after the first half inning of the game.
Davis and Robinson did some more damage in the 3rd.
Davis smacked an RBI double and James would later bring
one home with a sacrifice fly. The Redlegs then
continued to pile on in the top of the 4th when Matt
Mattice started the inning with a solo home run over the
right field fence. Matt Morrison then singled and stole
second base before being driven in by Kyle Arend. After
four innings, the Redlegs held a 9-0 lead.
The Royals chipped away in the 4th and 5th, finally
breaking through on Cookson to get 2 runs on the board.
Cookson got a bit of help from the defense in the 5th
when Chris Flaherty ripped a line drive into the right
center gap, but Matt Mattice tracked it down with an
amazing full extension diving catch that ended the
inning.
Heading into the bottom of the 7th, the Royals finally
figured out their former pitcher as their first 5 batters
reached base which ended up yielding 5 runs (4 earned).
Kevin Campbell came in and tossed the final 3 outs, and
despite plunking two hitters, was able to end the game
without further damage.
Despite the late scare, the Redlegs held on for the 11-7
victory and looked to carry that momentum over into game
2.
Boxscore
| M Morrison | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| J Robinson | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| K Arend | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| M Hartman | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| J Watson | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| S Micomonaco | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| N Davis | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| J Robinson | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| J Gross | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| M Mattice | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| B Malott | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| A Parks | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2B: Robinson; Micomonaco; Davis 2; Robinson
3B: Morrison
HR: Micomonaco; Mattice
| M Cookson (W) | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 11 | 6 |
| K Campbell | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |