Royals Drop Doubleheader at Bryan to Conclude AAC Series
DAYTON, TN— The Royals split Saturday's doubleheader at Bryan College but ultimately dropped the Appalachian Athletic Conference series to the Lions at Senter Field. Johnson opened the day with a 7–4 win in game two of the series before Bryan rallied late to claim the finale 14–13 and secure the series victory.
The Royals finished the weekend 1–2 in the series after falling in Friday night's opener before splitting the two games played Saturday.
In the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, Johnson bounced back with a strong performance on both the mound and at the plate. The Royals got on the board early, scoring two runs in the first inning as Luke Wilson came around to score before Braden Frank drove in JJ Menesini with an RBI groundout to give Johnson a quick 2–0 lead.
Johnson added another run in the second inning when JJ Menesini singled to bring home Christian Altamirano, pushing the lead to 3–0. Bryan responded in the bottom half of the inning with a three-run home run from Caleb McCarty to even the game at 3–3, but the Royals quickly regained the lead in the third inning. Edwin Olmeda Jr. singled to score Travis Hobbensiefken, giving Johnson a 4–3 advantage.
The game remained tight until the seventh inning when Mitchell Birdsall delivered the decisive swing, blasting a three-run home run that extended the Royals' lead to 7–3. Bryan added a run in the eighth inning, but Johnson's pitching staff held the Lions in check the rest of the way.
Jacob Jacome earned the win after pitching 6.2 innings and allowing three runs while scattering three hits. Kaleb Townsend closed the door late to record the save. Johnson finished with 13 hits in the victory, led by Travis Hobbensiefken's three-hit performance. Birdsall drove in three runs with the key home run, while Christian Altamirano, Grayson Shehan, and Edwin Olmeda Jr. also contributed multiple hits.
The series finale later in the day turned into a high-scoring battle that saw both teams trade big innings throughout the game. Johnson again jumped out to an early lead, plating three runs in the first inning behind RBIs from Braden Frank and Mitchell Birdsall.
The Royals continued to build the lead in the second inning when Birdsall launched a three-run home run to extend the advantage to 7–3. Johnson added three more runs in the third inning to move ahead 10–5, highlighted by a two-RBI play from Travis Hobbensiefken and another RBI from Frank.
Bryan slowly chipped away at the deficit before the Royals pushed the lead to 13–7 in the sixth inning after Luke Wilson delivered a two-run single. The Lions responded with four runs in the bottom of the sixth to close the gap to 13–11 and then completed the comeback in the seventh inning when Denajh Williams hit a two-run home run to give Bryan the 14–13 walk-off win.
Johnson's offense produced 16 hits in the loss. Wilson led the way with four hits, while Izaak Fernandez also recorded four hits. Frank drove in three runs and Birdsall finished with four RBIs in the contest.
Following the series, head coach Dave Serrano reflected on the weekend and the challenge of playing on the road against Bryan.
"Overall this ended up being a tough weekend for us," Serrano said. "We were well aware that playing at Bryan has always been a tough task and we needed to play clean baseball to come out on top. In my evaluation I felt in game two of the series we did play in complete character that led us to our lone victory of the series. It's a setback for us but this series will not define who we are and still can be moving forward. We still believe we have the right guys with the right make up and character to right the ship moving forward."