Royals sweep double header

The Mountain Home Royals had a light schedule last week, but made the most of it, sweeping a league American Legion baseball doubleheader from the Mountain View Toros on the road last Monday.

The first game saw the Royals lose their lead in the fifth when Mountain View scored six runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 12-10 lead. But Mountain Home came back with a seven-run seventh to win it,17-12.

The Royals pounded out 18 hits in the game. Jake Hennessey had four hits, including a double, drove in two runs and scored four. Ronny Young had three hits, including a double, and drove in seven runs. Austin Bodily also had three hits and scored three runs. Alex Rodriguez and Gage Curtis both had two hits and three RBIs each. Curtis had two doubles. Jesse Rodriguez had a two-run double, John Kennison an RBI-single, Alex Burke and Skylar Quintal also had hits and Danny Brescia had an RBI.

Austin Bodily, the fourth of four Royal pitchers, picked up the win to improve to 2-0.

The Royals won the second game 5-1, behind the no-hit pitching of Alex Rodriguez, but trailed 1-0, until the sixth when they scored two runs to take the lead. They added three more runs in the seventh.

The Toros got their run in the second when Rodriguez walked his third batter of the inning with the bases loaded. Other than that inning, the Royals' right-hander pitched well, striking out eight batters to improve to 3-1 on the season.

Ronny Young had a double and a triple to drive in two more runs, giving him seven RBIs on the night. Jake Hennessey had three more hits, to end the night with seven. Jesse Rodriguez had two hits, including an RBI-double. Austin Bodily had an RBI-double and Alex Rodriguez, Skylar Quintal and John Kennison also had hits.

Royals head coach Alex Hoffman was pleased with the sweep.

"We came out today and, granted, everything wasn't perfect, but we got much better and hit the ball all over the field, had great approaches at the plate and made that pitcher throw them their pitch rather than swinging at his pitch for the most part. It really showed."

The sweep improved the Royals to 15-7 overall and 10-3 in league play. They played the Centennial Cannons in a league doubleheader at Centennial Tuesday night and host the Boise Capitals for two tonight (Wednesday) starting at 5 p.m. They travel to Glenns Ferry Saturday for a doubleheader with the Pirates, the first game starting at 11 a.m.

The Area B Class A All-Star game was June 28 at Bishop Kelly. Alex Rodriguez and Jake Hennessey were selected to play in that on the East squad, which beat the West, 7-6. Rodriguez had a couple of hits in the game and Hennessey pitched a scoreless inning of relief for the East squad.