Royals place second at Oregon tournament

The Mountain Home Royals had to settle for second at the Pepsi Challenge baseball tournament when they fell short to Baker City in the Championship game Sunday.

Prior to that, the Royals had picked up five straight wins in the tourney to make the championship game.

Mountain Home 9

Boise Gems 6

(10 innings)

The Mountain Home Royals scored three times in the 10th inning to remain unbeaten in American Legion division play, downing the Boise Gems, 9-6, at Timberline Park in Boise on June 28.

Mountain Home scored two runs in the top of the seventh and looked to be in good shape for an easy win, leading the Gems by four, 6-2, as Boise came up for their last at-bat. Three walks, a couple hits and throwing errors later, and the Boise Gems had tied the game at 6-6, sending the game into extra innings.

Neither team scored until the 10th, when Jordan Cisna reached on an error and Jake Hiler and Tim Whitmarsh got back-to-back hits to load the bases with no outs.

Aaron Swartz was then hit by a pitch, scoring Cisna with the go-ahead run.

Alex Hoffman reached base safely on an error, scoring Hiler, and Bret Young walked, scoring Whitmarsh.

Michael DesPres, who came on in the eighth, shut down the Gems in the 10th and the Royals prevailed, 9-6.

"I guess a battle is what you would call it," said Royals head coach Mark Cotton in radio comments after the game. "It was a pretty ugly game, back and forth all game, a lot of errors.

"When you're in tight games like that, sometimes the guys tighten up and weird things happen, and that's kind of what happened in the seventh inning, but the guys hung tough and stepped up big in the end.

"Guys like Jordan Cisna coming off the bench had a huge at-bat for us. He gets on base and ends up being the winning run. All the way through the lineup, late in the game, we didn't have selfish at-bats.

"Early in the game, that was the problem -- selfish at-bats -- but when we stay within ourselves and just try to drive the ball up the middle, guys are successful."

Jake Hiler led the Royals with four hits, including a double. Alex Hoffman had two hits including a double and drove in two runs. Bret Young had a hit and two RBIs, Michael DesPres had solo home run, Aaron Swartz and Tim Whitmarsh had hits and RBIs, and Mike Anderson also had a hit.

Aaron Swartz pitched into the seventh inning, striking out seven and walking eight. Tim Whitmarsh finished the seventh inning, and Michael DesPres pitched three scoreless innings to get the win to improve to 3-1. He recorded four strikeouts.

Mountain Home Royals 27

Centennial Cannons 6

(6 innings)

The Royals opened play last Thursday morning at Borah in the Pepsi Challenge round-robin tourney. They were to play Mountain View in the 9 a.m. game, but the Toros were a no-show, reportedly reading the schedule wrong and not realizing they had a 9 a.m. game. The Royals were awarded a win by forfeit over Mountain View.

The Royals' 11:45 a.m. game against the Centennial Cannons was delayed by about a half an hour as Idaho Power worked to repair a power line that snapped in the outfield.

Mountain Home had beaten the Cannons, 15-9, a week earlier at Centennial, scoring 10 runs in the sixth to turn things around.

They would again have a good sixth inning against the Cannons, taking advantage of 11 hits, six hit batters and three errors to score 18 runs in the sixth, winning 27-6 in six innings.

"It took us a while to get going," said Coach Cotton in radio comments after the game. "The game was close going into the sixth, but we finally got the sticks going and they kept making mistakes and we kept capitalizing on them."

Bret Young had five hits and five RBIs to lead the Royals against Centennial. Aaron Swartz and Alex Hoffman both had three hits, Swartz, two RBIs, Hoffman, a double. Joe Poseley and Jake Hiler both had two hits including doubles and drove in three runs apiece.

Michael DesPres, Chris Rau, Mike Anderson and Zane Bundy all had hits, DesPres drove in four runs, Rau, two.

Rau picked up the win, going four innings to improve to 5-0. Jeff Vogl pitched the final two innings to close it out.

Mountain Home Royals 10

Boise Capitals 0

(5 innings)

Alex Hoffman pitched a three-hit shutout and got great defense behind him as the Royals disposed of the Boise Capitals, 10-0, in five innings on Friday.

The Royals pounded out 12 hits, with Chris Rau and Bret Young each getting three. Rau had two RBIs, including the one that ended the game in the fifth by the 10-run rule.

Young had a triple and an RBI. Jake Hiler had a three-run double, Aaron Swartz, Steven Budine and John Murdorf all had RBI-singles, and Alex Hoffman, Zane Bundy and Joe Poseley also had hits.

"We did pretty much everything right today," said Coach Cotton. "It was one of those games where everything came together for us. It was another big game for Zane Bundy at the plate, and John Murdorf came off the bench and had a great rip for us, and that was the best I've seen Alex Hoffman throw for us all year."

"It was good to know after those first few plays that I was going to have a defense behind me today," said Alex Hoffman, who struck out two and scattered three hits to claim his first win of the season.

Mountain Home Royals 12

Eagle Vipers 2

(5 innings)

Bret Young threw a one-hitter and the Royals pounded out 10 hits in a 12-2 win that ended in the fifth inning by the 10-run rule.

Young lost his shutout in the second inning when the Vipers scored two unearned runs, and lost his no-hitter in the fifth when Logan Byler doubled with two out. Young struck out five and walked just one. He also had two hits and drove in three runs, including the run to end the game.

"After I grounded out (to end the third inning) -- that was my first out of the tournament (he had gone nine for nine to that point), I just got kind of mad and I started throwing strikes and got in a groove and kept throwing strikes," said Bret Young in radio comments after the game.

"The guys picked it up and definitely came to play and I'm proud of them," said Coach Cotton of the Eagle win.

Chris Rau and Jake Hiler also had two hits. Rau drove in four runs and Hiler, one. Michael DesPres had an RBI-double, and Alex Hoffman had a hit and RBI. Aaron Swartz had a double and Tim Whitmarsh also had a hit.

Mountain Home Royals 6

Boise Gems 4

Bret Young continued his hot hitting, cracking a walk-off grand slam home run in the bottom of the seventh to give the Royals a 6-4 win over the Gems.

The two teams had battled for 10 innings just last Wednesday night, and once again it was clear the Royals would be in for another battle.

Jake Hiler tripled in Michael DesPres who had reached on an error to give himself and the Royals a 1-0 lead after two innings.

The Gems picked up two unearned runs off Hiler in the top of the third, and added two more in the fifth, as Mountain Home found themselves trailing, 4-1.

The Royals made it 4-2 in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Michael DesPres, but went into their last at-bat in the bottom of the seventh, trailing, 4-2.

Joe Poseley led off the Royals seventh with a single, and Tim Whitmarsh came on to run for him. Zane Bundy then flew out to the centerfielder, who dropped the ball. Whitmarsh, who had stayed close to first base, expecting the ball to be caught, then was out at second, with Bundy taking first.

The Gems then brought in a new pitcher, from whom both Mike Anderson and Alex Hoffman were able to draw walks to load the bases.

Another pitcher was called on by the Gems' coaching staff, and Bret Young greeted his first pitch fastball with a crashing home run over the right field fence to end the game, 6-4, in favor of the Royals.

"He gave me the pitch I wanted and I just turned on it and got it out of the park," said Young.

"I've never been that nervous, and I've been in a lot bigger games than that," said Coach Cotton after the game. "I had a whole speech I was going to give them about how they didn't come out focused today, and they answered the call in the seventh, and winning seems to heal all a lot of times, but we've got to be honest with ourselves, and we definitely did not come out to play until the seventh inning, and we can't always get away with that -- you don't always have guys step up that way. But I'm not taking anything away from Bret or anybody else. It was a great game and that's the second time I've seen Young do that. He is an amazing ball player!"

Coach Cotton also praised the pitching effort of Jake Hiler on the mound.

"When you get a guy throwing a gem like that you're hoping you can get him some run support, and when you don't, it's kind of a sad thing, because Jake absolutely threw a gem today!"

Jake Hiler improved to 2-1, going the distance, giving up just four hits while striking out five batters. All four Gems runs were unearned.

"It was kind of frustrating when we weren't hitting the ball, but towards the last two innings we started waking up," said Hiler. "It feels good to get a win, coming off a loss last weekend."

Baker City 5

Mountain Home Royals 3

(9 innings)

The Royals faced the Baker City Diamondbacks Sunday afternoon for the championship, and the fans were treated to a great pitching duel between Mountain Home's Michael DesPres and Baker City's C.J. Owens.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth, when Aaron Swartz was hit by a pitch, stole second and came home on Alex Hoffman's double to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.

Michael DesPres struck out the first two batters in the top of the sixth, but a walk, followed by a double broke up DesPres' no-hitter and put runners on second and third. They both came home on a double by Seager Pence to give Baker City the lead, 2-1.

Mountain Home battled back in the bottom of the sixth, Bret Young leading off with a double, and going to third on a bunt single by Michael DesPres.

Seager Pence came on in relief of Owens, and retired the next three batters, but Young had come home on a wild pitch to tie the game at 2-2.

Neither team scored in the seventh, forcing extra innings. The Royals almost won it in the eighth, as Young doubled again and went to third on a past ball, and tried to score on a wild pitch, but was thrown out at the plate.

The rain, thunder and lightening continued to move in and really caused havoc in the ninth inning. Baker City also caused havoc for Michael DesPres and the Royals, scoring three runs to take a 5-2 lead into the Royals' ninth.

Joe Poseley led off the inning reaching base by getting hit by a pitch. Zane Bundy than ran for him, and Jake Hiler followed with a single. The Royals did score an unearned run on an error, but came up short, 5-3.

"You've got to tip your hat to them, they played a great ball game," said Coach Cotton of Baker City after the game. "Mike pitched a great game, but we had a hard time getting him a lot of run support. We haven't hit in the big games -- big, big games -- so that's just something we've got to learn from, and we do have a pretty young team, and they'll learn from it. It was just a great ball game and our guys fought really hard. They have nothing to be disappointed about, they had a great tournament. We have really come together, the guys get along, and we're a team, and I love 'em to death."

Bret Young and Alex Hoffman both had two hits, Young two doubles, Hoffman, one. Young also ended up batting .875 for the tournament, getting 14 hits in 16 at bats, with three doubles, a triple and a home run and 13 RBIs. Other Royals with hits against Baker City were Joe Poseley, Jake Hiler and Michael DesPres.

DesPres suffered the loss despite striking out 18 batters. He is now 3-2.

The Royals return to division play today, traveling to Kuna for a double header, with the first game starting at 4 p.m. The Royals are 9-0 in division play, and 21-4 overall.