With a .500 regular season record in 2015, the Royals had their best regular season since 2012, in which they went 14-6 and took the section championship, but lost both state games.Though this season’s game record may not be quite on that level, what the record doesn’t show is a couple of walk offs, and even a no hitter.

As the season began, the Royals got off to a quick start as they faced the now 4-16 Irondale Knights. Robbie Palkert, senior and University of Nebraska commit for baseball, was the starting pitcher for the Royals in their opener.

In this outing, Palkert pitched 6 ⅔ innings and gave up one run along with two hits as he earned nine strikeouts.

Over the course of the next five games the Royals traded off wins with their opponents. In those games the Royals were outscored 11 to 36 including 1-11 losses against Eagan and Eden Prairie.

On April 22, the Royals hosted the Minnetonka Skippers, looking for their first conference win of the season.

With a three run first inning, and a five run fifth inning, the Royals were leading the Skippers 8-7 after 5 ½ innings of play. In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Royals put up three more runs and Zach Savitz, junior, pitched a scoreless seventh inning to seal the deal. The Royals came out on top by a score of 11-7.

“Beating Minnetonka showed how good we can be if we can play a complete baseball game,” Palkert said.

On May 15, the Royals played their Lake Conference rivals, the Edina Hornets. Coming into the game, the Royals had lost one and won two of the past three.

The Royals started the game hot, scoring two runs in the top of the first. Palkert, the starting pitcher, finished a complete-game no-hitter and the Royals went on to win the game 2-1.

“One of the high points of the year was when Palkert threw a no hitter,” said Gabe Herstig, senior.

On Thursday, May 21, the Royals headed into sections as the sixth seed. Their first opponent was 14 seed Minneapolis South. Starting pitcher, Palkert, and the Royals defense held South to just two runs, as the Royals offense scored nine runs to win the game.

The Royals’ next opponent, was the Edina Hornets. The Royals were 1-1 versus the Hornets so far this season.

The Royals went into Braemer, looking for an upset to send them to the next round. The Royals did just that, beating the Hornets by a score of 3-2.

The team’s next task at hand was taking on the Armstrong Falcons in the section quarterfinals. The Falcons scored five runs in the third inning and were able to hold the lead as they took down the Royals 5-1.

After the Royals first sections loss to Armstrong, the Royals were facing elimination in a home game against the Robbinsdale Cooper Hawks. The Hawks arrived at HHS ready to play as they beat the Royals 6-1, thus concluding the Royals 2015 baseball season.

The Royals baseball team is also optimistic of the team’s future.

“The future is very bright for Hopkins baseball. We have great returning leaders in juniors, and we also have some great sophomore talent coming up,” Herstig said.