By FRED KRONER
Fred@mahometnews.com
The Royal Giants finished in the postseason what they started in the regular season.
Royal completed a two-game weekend sweep of Buckley on Sunday – on the Dutch Masters’ field – and added the 85th Eastern lllinois Baseball League tournament championship to its regular-season crown.
The Giants followed up on their 3-1 Saturday semifinal win with a 6-2 title-game triumph on Sunday.
“Great day, great crowd, and two great and storied teams competed in a battle in front of a nearly record crowd,” said Buckley’s Trent Eshleman.
Overall, Royal coach Tim Dillman’s team is the first in E.I. history to win every game played during a season. Royal finished 9-0 during the abbreviated, COVID-19-shortened season.
Four of the wins came against runner-up Buckley and accounted for all of the Dutch Masters’ losses in nine games.
On Sunday, Buckley was the visiting team and held a 2-0 lead after the game’s third batter, Nathan Walker, cracked a two-run homer against Villa Grove/Heritage product Evan Wilson.
Royal got one run back in the bottom of the inning, but for the second time all season trailed after a full inning had been completed, 2-1.
A four-run second inning against Dutch Master starter Andy Davis sent the Giants ahead to stay.
The top of the order led the way for Royal. Leadoff batter Asher Bradd – the regular-season most valuable player – had at least two hits in each of his three post-season games.
All three of his Sunday hits landed for extra bases. He swatted two doubles and a triple. In tournament play, Bradd batted .500 (7 for 14).
Regular-season batting champ Colton Carr had two hits for Royal in Sunday’s finale. One of his hits was a double. In three tourney contests, Carr hit .455 (5 for 11).
Three Giant pitchers teamed up to shut out the Dutch Masters after Sunday’s first inning. Wilson totaled 3 2/3 innings and was followed by Adam Crites, who earned the win. Crites threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He struck out two and walked no one.
The finisher was the E.I. Pitcher of the Year, Jesse Remington. The left-hander worked the last two innings, yielding one hit and striking out three.
Five Royal players had hits in all three of the team’s postseason games. Besides Bradd and Carr, the Giants’ other consistent hitters were Cole Jones, Blake Hoveln and Jake Cribbett.
Walker and Josh Krumwiede each collected two hits for Buckley in Sunday’s game.
In Saturday’s opener of the best-of-three championship series, Nolan Roseman pitched two-hit ball over the first 7 1/3 innings of Royal’s 3-1 conquest. He walked four and struck out three.
Crites picked up the triumph with 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief. He fanned two and walked no one.
Royal snapped a 1-1 deadlock in the top of the ninth inning when Hayden Cargo delivered a two-out, two-run hit. His second hit of the game drove in Carr and Cody Flowers.
Buckley’s defending tourney champions created the 1-1 tie with an eighth-inning run knocked in by Evan Regez, which wiped out a one-run lead the Giants had built on Bradd’s third-inning single.
For the nine E.I. games played by Royal this season, the team yielded 10 total runs and committed only seven errors, none in Sunday’s finale.
In running the table this summer, Royal did so without ever playing a game on its home field in Gifford. All four of the team’s wins against Buckley were games played in Buckley at spacious Scheiwe Field.
