Royals finish post season with loss to Boise Gems

The Mountain Home Royals American Legion baseball season ended last Tuesday with their loss to the Boise Gems.

It came a day after they suffered their first loss of the district tournament to the Boise Senators.

Senators 11, Mountain Home 7

A nine-run fourth inning was the difference last Monday, July 13, as the Boise Senators took advantage of three Mountain Home errors to shoot out to an 11-1 lead after four. The Royals struck for two runs in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but fell short, 11-7.

"From the second we showed up here it kind of felt like that was the way things were going to go, after that first pitch was thrown," said Royals head coach Alex Hoffman.

"I guess it's easy for me to say that now that it's said and done, but I can't say that we showed up today to play our best game, and I think that was definitely the difference in the way things ended up here.

"The guys did a good job those last three innings doing what they were supposed to do, and that's kind of the way we wanted to end things on a positive note."

The Royals outhit the Senators 13-8, but the nine-run fourth, with only one of those runs earned, was too much to overcome that particular day.

Alex Rodriguez suffered the loss, his second against four wins, despite giving up just three earned runs.

He helped his cause at the plate with three hits and an RBI. Jake Hennessey and Austin Bodily both had two hits and Hennessey had an RBI. Danny Brescia, Ronny Young, Skyler Podesek, Skylar Quintal, Gage Curtis and Joe Gutierrez also had hits. Brescia had an RBI and John Kennison also drove in a run.

Gems 5, Royals 4

The loss to the Senators put the Royals in the consolation bracket Tuesday afternoon against the Boise Gems, who had dropped their opener to the Boise Capitals but had stayed alive with a win over Kuna on Monday, July 13.

Mountain Home found itself playing catch-up ball all day, and although they had their chances, fell short, 5-4.

The Gems scored a run in the top of the first and Mountain Home answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning.

Boise scored two in the second to go up 3-1 and the two teams each scored runs in the fourth and fifth to make it 5-3, Gems.

The score stayed at 5-3 until the bottom of the seventh, when the Royals got runners at second and third with just one out. A wild pitch by the Gems pitcher, Ryan Smith, scored Skylar Quintal from third base. Austin Bodily, the potential tying run, moved to third base, but Smith struck out two straight batters to end the threat and the game, the Gems winning 5-4.

Despite the loss, Coach Hoffman was proud of the effort by his team.

"Those are the situations that keep you coming out to the ball field, if you ask me," the coach said. "Two outs, two strikes on the opposing team's best hitter, and I had all the confidence in Jake (Hennessey) and he had all the confidence in himself, but it didn't work out. It's unfortunate that it had to be in that situation, but we're going to take what we got with this."

Austin Bodily had three hits, including a double, and drove in a run. Meanwhile, Ronny Young had two hits, including a double, and also drove in a run.

Alex Rodriguez had an RBI-single and Skylar Quintal also had a hit. Gage Curtis went the distance but suffered the loss, to end the season at 3-3.

The loss eliminated the Royals from the district tournament. They finished 21-11 overall.