Royals win second straight Wood Bat Tournament

In a busy week of baseball that saw the Mountain Home Royals play eight games in six days, the team came away with its second straight Nampa Outback Father's Day Classic Wood Bat Tournament championship.

Royals 7

Capitals 3, 10 innings

The Mountain Home Royals received their first big test of the season last Tuesday night at Capital High in Boise, but the Royals plated four runs in the top of the 10th inning to down the Boise Capitals, 7-3.

Prior to Tuesday night's game, the Royals had only gone a full seven innings just once in their first seven games.The Capitals managed to score single runs in the first and second innings to take a 2-0 lead. The Royals tied the game in the fourth inning on a two-run home run by Chris Rau.

Mountain Home took advantage of some wildness by Boise pitcher Kyle Pearson in the fifth when he hit two batters. Jake Hiler came through with an RBI single to put the Royals up, 3-2, but the Capitals tied the game at 3-3 with a run in the sixth.

It stayed at 3-3 until the Royals broke it open in the 10th, scoring four times to get the 7-3 win.

"That was a good lesson to learn this time of year," said Royals head baseball coach Matt Bundy after the game. "We're going to have to play some good baseball as there are some teams out there that can play. We really had to clutch up there a couple of times, pitching-wise and defensively to hold them off until we came up with those four runs in the 10th.

"I thought Capital stayed with that pitcher (Pearson) a long time. They stayed with him well into the 10th inning, and that's a lot of pitches for a young kid this early in the season. Chris (Rau) came in and threw some nice innings of relief for us and shut them down, He came in in a jam and was able to pitch out of it. It was a good game with good lessons to learn."

Jake Hiler had three of the seven hits the Royals had for the game and knocked in one run. Chris Rau had a two-run home run, Eric Christiansen had an RBI-double, Cal Vivier and Ricky Baker had hits and RBIs, and Gabe Anderson had an RBI. Anderson pitched into the eighth inning until a walk and hit batter brought in Chris Rau who pitched out of the jam and shut the Capitals down the rest of the way to pick up the win.

Royals 8, 9

Buhl 7, 8

(8 innings)

The Royals moved to 10-0 with a non-league doubleheader sweep of the Buhl Tribe Wednesday night at home.

The Royals broke open a close game with six runs in the fifth inning of the first game to take a 7-0 lead, but two walks and a single loaded the bases for the Tribe in the top of the sixth and ended Eric Christiansen's night on the mound. Ricky Baker came on in relief, but Buhl scored four times before the inning was over.

The Royals added what proved to be a huge run in the bottom of the sixth on Ricky Baker's sacrifice fly.

The Tribe continued to batter Baker in the seventh, but Jake Hiler came on to close the door and get the save, as the Royals won, 8-7.

Chris Rau had two hits including a double and drove in two runs. Shawn Lewis had a bases-loaded triple and three RBIs. Zane Bundy and Gabe Anderson had hits and RBIs, Cal Vivier, Alex Hoffman, Jake Hiler and Eric Christiansen also had hits, and Ricky Baker had an RBI.

The Royals jumped out to a 7-0 lead after two innings in the second game, but let Buhl back into it, and a four run fifth inning brought Buhl back to within two, 7-5.

Buhl took advantage of some defensive errors by the Royals to score three runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead, 8-7.

Ricky Baker doubled in Cal Vivier with the tying run in the bottom of the seventh as the game went into extra innings. Jordan Cisna set down the Tribe in order in the eighth, and the Royals loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth, the winning run scoring on Jake Hiler's misplayed ground ball, the Royals winning, 9-8.

Chris Rau and Eric Christiansen both had two hits, Rau had three RBIs, Christiansen had a triple and two RBIs. Ricky Baker had a double and an RBI, and Ricky Lee, Brock Morris, Alex Hoffman, Cal Vivier, Jordan Cisna and Zane Bundy also had hits. Jordan Cisna got the win in relief of Trevor Woodruff, who went six innings.

"We had our second extra inning game in as many nights, and we had a pretty close one in the first game of the doubleheader," said Coach Bundy after the sweep. "Both games I thought we had control of, and then we just had a couple of defensive miscues that let them back in it, but we showed a lot of character, holding the first game and coming back and winning the second."

Royals 2

Toros 1

The Royals opened play in the Nampa Outback Father's Day Classic Wood Bat Tourney against the Mountain View Toros Thursday, and came away with a tough 2-1 win.

Mountain Home's Chris Rau and the Toros' Chase Miller were involved in a great pitching duel. The Toros took advantage of a leadoff walk to score a run in the first inning, which held up until the Royals scored an unearned run in the fourth to tie the game, and another one in the fifth to take the lead. Chris Rau struck out eight and scattered five hits to get the win.

Ricky Baker had two hits for the Royals, Jake Hiler and Chris Rau also had hits.

"That was quite a game!" said Coach Bundy. "The Toros, they played a heck of a baseball game. That kid (Chase Miller, the Mountain View pitcher) has been clocked at 90 (miles an hour), and I think he was throwing mid to high 80s today easily. He only had the one pitch, but we just couldn't quite catch up to it, and he threw a heck of a game, but we were able to manufacture a couple runs off of bunts and off passed balls, and I think our experience kind of came through there."

Wood River 2

Mtn. Home 1

The shoe was on the other foot Friday afternoon as the Royals faced the Wood River Wranglers in another pitching duel in the Wood Bat tourney.

The Royals got to Trent Seamons for five hits, but could only score once.

Wood River managed just two hits off Jake Hiler, but managed to score unearned runs in the third and fifth to win it, 2-1.

Ricky Lee had two hits including a double, and Alex Hoffman, Eric Christiansen and Chris Rau had hits, Rau's brought in Mountain Home's only run of the game in the seventh, and the Royals left the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.

Jake Hiler suffered the loss, the first of the season, and his first loss in Legion ball since the 2006 season.

"We had a couple defensive miscues there," said Coach Bundy. "Jake threw a nice two-hitter, and their kid had a two-hitter going into the seventh inning and both pitchers were throwing well, and what I'm figuring out in talking to the coaches is we're seeing everybody's ace, and that's okay. We get to see some good pitching, which is going to get us ready for later on in the season. These are good lessons to learn before we come into the district and state championships."

Royals 7

Braves 4

The Royals bounced back into the win column with a 7-4 win over the Nampa Braves Friday evening at Rodeo Park.

The Royals scored one run in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead, but the Braves managed to get to Tom Hennessey for three runs in the second.

Hennessey held the Braves scoreless the rest of the way until the seventh, and helped out a three-run fourth inning for the Royals with an RBI single.

The Royals added two more runs in the fifth and one in the sixth.

Jake Hiler had three hits against Nampa. Brock Morris, Shawn Lewis and Tom Hennesey had hits and RBIs, Cal Vivier, Alex Hoffman and Gabe Anderson also had hits, Ricky Baker had an RBI.

"It's nice to get the win," said Coach Bundy after the game. "It's been a long day -- it's a little hotter today than it has been, and I don't think we had enough water in us or something, but the guys came through. We had some nice at bats. We still made a couple of defensive miscues that we need to get a handle on, but we did need to come back with a win and we did!"

Royals 13

Wood River 3

The Royals only had four teams in their pool, so the placements for Sunday's games were decided on Friday. That meant Saturday's game with Wood River had no bearing on where they would place. However, the Royals did have a score to settle with the Wranglers after Friday's loss.

Mountain Home took advantage of a thin pitching core to beat Wood River 13-3, in six innings.

Mountain Home jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but Wood River tied it up with two runs in the top half of the third. The Royals went up, 3-2, with a run in the bottom of the third, but Wood River tied it at 3-3 in the top of the fourth.

Mountain Home regained the lead with two runs in the fifth, and when the Wranglers went to their bullpen in the sixth, they could not get out of the inning. Michael Brunker gave up a hit and three walks before being replaced by Shane Friesen, who didn't fair much better. He did manage to get two outs, but gave up four hits, hit a batter and walked two -- the last walk ending the game at 13-3 by the 10-run rule.

Jake Hiler, Chris Rau and Brock Morris each had two hits and an RBI, Gabe Anderson had a double and two RBIs, Jordan Cisna had a hit and RBI, and Ricky Baker also had a hit. Ricky Lee had two RBIs, and David Bitrick, Shawn Lewis and Eric Christiansen also had RBIs.

Christiansen picked up the win, going five innings, striking out six and giving up just three hits. Jordan Cisna pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

"They ran out of pitchers there and had to throw some kids that I don't think have thrown very many innings," said Coach Bundy after the game.

"But this is the first game this week where we've showed a little bit of the killer instinct to finish the game when we had the chance, so that was good to see!"

Mtn. Home 4

Upper Valley 3

The Royals successfully defended their Wood Bat Tourney championship with a 4-3 win over the Upper Valley Bulldogs Sunday afternoon at Rodeo Park.

Mountain Home scored a run in the top of the first inning, but Upper Valley scored two in the bottom of the first, and added another run in the second to go up 3-1.

Gabe Anderson settled down after that and allowed just two hits the rest of the way. The Royals finally managed to break through against the Upper Valley pitcher who threw a lot of knuckle balls in the fifth inning, taking advantage of two hits, two walks and two errors to score three runs to take the lead, 4-3. Anderson retired the last 12 batters in a row, striking out the side in the seventh inning.

Royals pitching coach James Morris was extremely proud of the way the Royals played.

"That was a great battle. Gabe Anderson was just tough as nails out there. He started off a little slow and had a couple hits against him, but he bounced right back and threw a heck of a game and had a good squad behind him today and really did a fine job!"

Morris was also pleased with the way his guys handled the knuckle ball pitcher from Upper Valley.

"We saw some real adjustments at the bat today. I was a little nervous when he was throwing real off-speed -- we had trouble with that earlier in the year, but they all made great adjustments. Chris Rau is solid as ever, and Eric Christiansen really did a fine job for us, came through huge for us with the sticks, and also defensively, just made some great plays out there. Shawn Lewis put the ball on the ground a couple times for us and got us some runs. They were in the right mode at the right time. That was a great performance today."

Chris Rau led an 11-hit attack with three hits. Cal Vivier, Jake Hiler and Shawn Lewis each had two hits, Vivier had an RBI. Eric Christiansen had an RBI triple, and Ricky Lee also had a hit. Gabe Anderson had 10 strikeouts and improved to 2-0 on the season with the win.

The Royals improved to 14-1 on the season, and have this week off, returning to action on June 23 for a doubleheader at home against Vallivue.