ROYAL CITY — A lead-off home run and savvy base running, along with some tough pitching in bottom of the seventh inning gave Royal High School a 21-20 win and a split of a fastpitch doubleheader at Connell last week.

This game was the continuation of a game that was halted due to darkness a week earlier. Royal was leading 16-14 with Connell batting with the bases loaded and two outs. Connell had won the first game, 15-13.

Royal came right back in top of the sixth with two runs to run the score to 18-15. McDarra vonStein, who had a grand slam earlier in the game, led off the Royal sixth with solo homer.

Connell exploded for five runs in the bottom of the frame, going in front, 20-18. The Knights turned to small ball in the top of the 7th for three runs.

VonStein and Jennifer Ledezma got on after being hit with pitches. That brought Savanna Buster to the plate, and she delivered a single to score vonStein. Ashley Valle followed with a ground-out to the shortstop but scored Ledezma and moved Buster to third base.

With Alyx Ziegler at the plate, the Connell pitcher threw an illegal pitch. A ball was awarded to Ziegler and the runner, Buster, was awarded home plate to scored the go-ahead run.

With the score 21-20, all Royal needed to do was hang on. The Knights’ defense did just that, throwing out three batters on grounders to the infield.

The victory left the high-flying Knights with a 7-1 overall record and a 2-1 mark in the SCAC. They will play again on April 12, when Warden comes to town.