Royals open with three wins

The Mountain Home Royals opened its 2005 Class A American Legion baseball schedule by winning three of four games last week.

Mountain Home 15

Vallivue Titans 5

The Royals got some big hits and good pitching in downing the Vallivue Titans, 15-5, in six innings in their American Legion baseball opener at home last Wednesday.

The Royals put together four timely hits, three walks, a hit batter and two Vallivue errors to score eight runs in the second inning.

They scored two more in the third to go up, 10-0, and after Vallivue took advantage of four Mountain Home errors to score five runs in the top of the fourth.

The Royals got three of them back in the bottom half of the inning, and then ended the game with two more in the sixth to win by the 10-run rule.

Mountain Home Royals head coach Travis DeVore was pleased to open the season on a winning note.

"After going through kind of a rough high school season, opening with a win feels real good. We're got our work cut out for us, though. We didn't play spotless baseball by any stretch of the imagination.

"It's great having Dillon Barresi back. He leads on the field and he hit extremely well today.

"The pitching was excellent," Devore added. "David Zito and Bret Young both threw extremely well.

"We have some things to work on defensively. That one big inning that had was all on us, and after practicing a couple of days and getting right after it, I guess you expect it to be a little bit sloppy, but I like the kids attitude above everything -- that's what I was pleased with -- they're very relaxed, very confident and focused group of kids, so I hope that continues throughout the season."

Bret Young and Dillon Barresi had the big bats for the Royals. Young had three hits and drove in three runs, Barresi had two hits including a triple and also had three RBIs. Mike Anderson, Tim Whitmarsh and Aaron Swartz all had RBI singles, and Jake Hiler, Daniel Rau and David Zito also collected hits.

Bret Young picked up the win, pitching four innings, striking out six and giving up the five unearned runs on just four hits. David Zito pitched two scoreless, no-hit innings in relief, striking out two.

Emmett Blue Devils 10

Mountain Home 3

Mountain Home's first road game ended with the Royals losing to the Emmett Blue Devils, 10-3, at Emmett last Friday evening.

After Emmett scored a run in the bottom of the first, the Royals tied it with a run in the second, and took a 3-1 lead with two more in the third.

Emmett got to Royals starter Michael DesPres for two runs on four straight hits to start the fourth before DesPres battled back to strike out the side, the fourth ending with the score tied at 3-3.

Two errors loomed big for Mountain Home in the fifth, when the Blue Devils added three more to take a 6-3 lead. They added four more in the sixth to build up a 10-3 lead. Casey McCarthy held the Royals to just three hits while striking out nine in going the distance for the win.

"We certainly saw a different approach in the kids when they're playing a young team like the young Vallivue team and a more seasoned older team like Emmett," said Coach DeVore in radio comments after the game. "But I don't want to give anyone too much credit, because it was kind of just an ugly game. Emmett certainly didn't play that well, and we hurt ourselves at certain times.

"Michael DesPres certainly pitched well enough to win, but we didn't play very well behind him. I think there's a lot we can learn from this, and I intentionally scheduled these guys (Emmett) early in the season because I look at them as being one of the better challenges we're going to have, and we need to recognize it's not a junior varsity schedule that we're playing, and we play against some legitimate teams as well, and this right here is a game where we obviously come away from it knowing things that we have to work on."

David Zito had two of the three Mountain Home hits, one a double. Bret Young also doubled and knocked in a run.

Michael DesPres suffered the loss, going five innings, giving up six runs, just three of them earned, while striking out six batters. Mike Anderson relieved in the sixth, and faced five batters, giving up four runs while walking two and hitting one. Jeff Vogl pitched an inning of scoreless one-hit ball in relief.

Mountain Home 12, 15

Meridian Rangers 2, 5

It was definitely what the doctor ordered for the Royals Saturday when they bounced back from the Emmett loss to sweep two from the young Rangers of Meridian.

Mountain Home pounded out 32 hits in the sweep, the first game ending after five, and the second one going to the sixth before being ended by the 10-run rule.

"After coming off the Emmett game, we certainly were looking forward to today," said Coach DeVore after the sweep. "I'm not saying we played perfect ball today, because we didn't. We still have a lot of things to work on, but it seemed there was a little more enthusiasm.

"Some guys certainly had good days at the plate. Daniel Rau and Tim Whitmarsh probably had the best day at the plate, and Bret Young had a day that reminded me a lot of his sophomore year, so definitely, some good things happened for us today, and among that was pitching. I was kind of going through my head that we've played four games and I think we've pitched 10 kids. That's going to bode well for us down the stretch of the season. We're only carrying about 15 kids, and if 12 or 13 of these can pitch, hopefully, we can come through the long season. It was a good team effort today by everybody."

Tim Whitmarsh had a banner day against the Rangers, collecting six hits in seven at bats and knocking in three runs. Brett Young had seven hits and drove in five runs. Michael DesPres had five hits and five RBIs, Daniel Rau had three hits, including two doubles. David Zito had three hits and an RBI, Dillon Barresi had two hits and two RBIs. Chris Rau had two hits and an RBI, and Jeff Vogl and Mike Anderson also had hits and RBIs. Sam Cisners and Joe Poseley also had hits.

Chris Rau picked up the win in the first game, going four innings, giving up two runs on seven hits while striking out four. Jake Hiler pitched a scoreless inning of relief.

In the second game, Aaron Swartz went three innings, giving up the five runs on three hits.

He struck out two, walked three ands hit two batters. Daniel Rau pitched two innings of scoreless, hitless relief, and Tim Whitmarsh pitched a scoreless inning giving up just one hit.

The Royals were at Nampa yesterday (Tuesday) and go to Bishop Kelly tomorrow (Thursday) to face the Boise Barons. They return home for a 6 p.m. game against the Centennial Cannons on June 13.