Emperors Commence Second-Half in Familiar, Walk-off Fashion

ROME, Ga – On a big day at the box office, both at the ballpark and across the globe, Owen Carey and the Rome Emperors walked-off the Hudson Valley Renegades for the second straight game.

Briggs McKenzie, Atlanta’s fourth-round selection in last Summer’s draft, took the ball for his very first home start as an Emperor, having made his High-A debut last week in Bowling Green. McKenzie labored through control issues over his 3.1 innings of work, walking five, and surrendering four earned runs.

A pair of Renegades scored in the first on two hits and two free passes. In the third, Roderick Arias’ second home run of the series and sixth of the season brought one other Renegade around to score, giving the Yankees’ High-A affiliate a three-run lead at the time. Briggs exited with 64 pitchers and one on and one out in the fourth, yielding to fellow left-hander Riley Frey. The Emperors bullpen (Frey, Logan Samuels, and Isaac Gallegos) went on to retire 17 of the next 19 Renegades, striking out seven in the process.

Offensively, Rome was jumpstarted by a two-out, RBI single from Isaiah Drake in the first, bringing around Tate Southisene to get the Emperors on the scoreboard. In the fourth, Dixon Williams’ second double of the contest scored Isaiah Drake from third, and, after a single from Colby Jones, Williams himself scored on a sacrifice fly from Rome’s Mason Guerra. The one-run lead for Hudson Valley held from the fifth inning through the eighth inning.

A trio of one-out singles and a hit batsmen brought nineteen-year-old Owen Carey to the plate with the bases loaded in the ninth and his line drive base hit to right field cemented a Friday night win for the Emperors to open up the second half of the 2026 season.

The Emperors and the Renegades are back in action on Saturday with a 6:45pm first pitch. Right-hander Zach Royse is set to make his High-A debut for Rome after his June 16th call-up from Augusta.