Jul. 5—The Rochester Royals are getting younger and better at the same time.
The amateur baseball team has had a recent surge winning eight of its past 10 games and a strong core of fresh faces is a big reason for the success. The Royals (12-8 entering Sunday’s game against Hastings) are flush right now with a talented group of young players who are still currently playing college baseball.
“Looking ahead, it’s super nice to have some of these young guys in the area that are presumably going to be signed for however long they want to play with us,” Royals player/manager Tim Oesterlin said. “To have an influx right now is a really nice thing.”
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That talent was on display last Wednesday in the Royals’ 11-6 road victory over the Austin Greyhounds. The Royals had five current college players in the starting lineup in Logan Milene (NIACC), Tate Meiners (Augustana), Sam Warren (Wisconsin-La Crosse), Gabe Sepulveda (RCTC) and Matthew Hayford (St. John’s). Coming of the bench were Will Weick (Augsburg) and relief pitchers Luca Cardenas (RCTC) and Derek Lilledahl (Minnesota State, Mankato).
“It brings a good energy to the squad,” Milene said.
Royals starting pitcher Matteo Finocchi, a native of New York, just concluded playing college ball in 2020 and he played at Division II Mercy College.
“They just got done with their college seasons not too long ago so they’ve been playing for a couple of months,” Finocchi said. “They’re all fresh and hitting their hot streaks.”
“Definitely when you’re in the rhythm it helps your performance a lot,” Milene said.
Finocchi is a nice addition because he is a pitcher. Most of the current college players on the Royals are position players, including Hayden Brown (Minnesota Duluth). T Palmer Mickelson, who was the RCTC staff ace this spring, is also pitching for the Royals.
“The added depth of those young guys is really nice because we don’t have pitchers playing in the field or too many people playing out of position,” Oesterlin said. “That’s something that’s been really, really nice this year.”
The Royals even have a couple of 2021 Rochester high school grads on the squad. Nolan Jurgenson of Lourdes will play at Bethel College next year while Drew Lingen of John Marshall will play at NIACC.
“That’s building a team right there,” Sepulveda said. “You have to start from the bottom up, get younger guys who can develop into older guys. The fact that they have as many talented younger guys that they do, they’re going to be set for a while.”
A lot of the new core of Royals are players from Rochester and have been playing with and against each other for years.
“The good thing about it is they’re all buddies, too,” Sepulveda said. “They all love each other and look out for each other.”
Sepulveda is a Texas native and new to the team, but he said he is already bonding with his teammates.
“I’m already tight with a couple of them and it’s really cool,” Sepulveda said. “But that’s Minnesota for you.”
But for all the influx of new talent, the Royals still have a nice nucleus of veteran players, some of whom haven’t been out of college for very long.
“The older guys have helped us younger guys a lot,” Milene said. “I joined the team last year and I struggled a little bit and those guys kind of helped me through that.”
Sepulveda said its very important to have veteran leadership.
“Oh for sure,” he said. “Because they give us insights that we don’t know. There might be something we’re struggling with and they’ve already gone through it and they can explain it to us. Which then makes the young guys 10 times better.”
The Royals still rely on left-hander Matt Meyer and Mitch Brown to carry the load on the mound. Both are former minor-league pitchers.
“We still have a lot of the veteran guys in there kind of plugging away,” Oesterlin said. “Some of the younger guys just out of college or just wrapping up college are still probably the mainstays or core of the lineup.”
If the Royals can keep their current core of young players together, they should be set for many years to come.
“All I can say is this is going to be a team to watch,” Sepulveda said. “It’s going to be a fun team.”
Logan Milene smacks a 2-run HR in the 3rd and Royals lead the Greyhounds 3-0. pic.twitter.com/AfpalOLjaO
— Guy N. Limbeck (@PBglimbeck) July 1, 2021
Gabe Sepulveda hits 2-run HR in 6th, Royals open up 7-0 lead over Greyhounds. pic.twitter.com/pWKPFvwKYk
— Guy N. Limbeck (@PBglimbeck) July 1, 2021