Royals win five of seven this week

In a busy week of baseball, the Mountain Home Royals won five of seven games and finished fifth at the Firecracker Invitational in Boise.

Royals 11

Capitals 1

The Royals opened a busy week with a home game against the Boise Capitals Tuesday night and took advantage of the Capitals' pitchers' inability to find the plate to down the visitors 11-1 in six innings.

The Royals only outhit the Capitals, 6-4, but the two Boise pitchers combined for six walks and six hit batters. Two costly errors also helped the Royals' cause.

Mountain Home scored three runs in the first, four in the second and three in the third to take a 10-1 lead. It stayed at 10-1 until the bottom of the sixth, when two walks and an error loaded the bases for the Royals, and then Eric Christiansen walked, forcing in the last Royals' run, the team winning 11-1.

"We jumped out quick and then let them hang around for a couple innings there and then finished them up in the sixth with that run there," said Royals head coach Matt Bundy. "We kind of manufactured runs. A couple guys hit the ball hard -- Chris (Rau) had a nice hit down the left field line and Ricky Lee had a nice hit. Other than that we were kind of manufacturing runs there, and they gave us a couple with some throwing errors, but their outfielders made a couple of nice plays at home, too."

Jake Hiler had a three-run double, Chris Rau a two-run single, Ricky Lee had an RBI triple, Cal Viver had an RBI single, Eric Christiansen had a single and RBI, and Ricky Baker also had a hit. Jake Hiler picked up the win, holding the Capitals to just four hits while striking out six.

Mtn. Home 14

Walla Walla 0

The Royals opened play in the Firecracker Invitational Tournament last Thursday with a 14-0 win over the Walla Walla Cubs.

Chris Rau threw a two-hit five-inning shutout, and also had four hits and drove in three runs. Jake Hiler had three hits including two doubles and drove in two runs. Cal Vivier and Eric Christiansen both had two hits and an RBI. Vivier had a triple, Brock Morris had a hit and RBI, and Ricky Lee, Shawn Lewis and Jordan Cisna also had RBIs.

"The boys really came out and played," said Coach Bundy after the game. "Chris threw a great game, Jake Hiler hit some really nice shots, and it was just an all-around good game, defensively, offensively and pitching."

Pocatello 14

Royals 9

The Royals then faced the Pocatello Razorbacks Thursday evening, and played them tough, but after falling behind, were never able to come back and take the lead.

Pocatello scored a run in the second, and struck for five runs in the third to go up, 6-0.

The Royals got two runs in the fourth, and after Pocatello got one back in the top of the fifth, came back with four in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit to one, 7-6.

Pocatello stretched their lead to 10-6 in the top of the sixth, with Mountain Home getting two runs back to make it 10-8, but a four run seventh pushed the Razorback lead to 14-8. The Royals' rally in the bottom of the seventh produced only one run, as they lost, 14-9.

"We were just talking about all the things that happen when you miss the front end of a double play early in an inning like that and let them get some base runners and make Gabe throw more pitches," said coach Bundy after the game. "That happened to us twice today, where we got it set up, got a ground ball with a runner at first and we just don't execute, and we end up making Gabe throw more more pitches than he would have had to.

"Jordan did come in and throw some nice relief, but we kind of let the game slip away when we really had a chance to bring it back."

The Royals only had five hits against the Razorbacks. Chris Rau had a hit and two RBIs, Ricky Lee had a hit and RBI, Jake Hiler had a double, Shawn Lewis and Brock Morris also had hits, and Alex Hoffman, Eric Christiansen and Ricky Baker all had RBIs. Gabe Anderson suffered the loss, his first in four decisions.

Royals 10

Reno 3

The Royals started the Fourth of July off with a 9 a.m. game against Reno, beating the A's 10-3.

Mountain Home struck for two runs in the second and third innings to go up 4-0. Reno scored two in the fourth to cut the lead to 4-2. The Royals made it 5-2, in the fifth and added five more runs in the sixth to put it out of reach.

"That was a nice little game," said Coach Bundy after the game. "Eric pitched a real nice game, and Tim came in and hadn't pitched in a week or so and came in and threw some real nice relief. We had some kids get back on track hitting the ball, and it was good to see the kids have some fun today."

The Royals had 13 hits in the game, led by Alex Hoffman and Jake Hiler who both had three hits, two doubles and two RBIs. Cal Vivier and Jordan Cisna both had two hits. Vivier had a double and scored three runs. Chris Rau and Zane Bundy had hits and RBIs, Ricky Lee also had a hit, and Tom Hennessey had an RBI.

Eric Christiansen pitched into the sixth inning to get the win, improving to 5-0. Tom Hennessey closed out the game for the Royals.

Baker City 5

Mtn. Home 2

The Royals faced the Baker City Diamondbacks Friday afternoon in the tournament at Capital High School, and had their chances, but came up a bit short to Baker City, losing 5-2.

Royals lefthander Jake Hiler struggled finding the plate, walking a career high six batters, four of them eventually scoring as Baker City scored two runs in the second and three in the fifth.

Mountain Home scored a run in the third on a Cal Vivier triple, and looked like they might break it open in the bottom of the fifth when they loaded the bases with no outs, but the rally fell apart when Cal Vivier was picked off first base, Brock Morris was thrown out at the plate on a ground out. Ricky Lee did manage to score on a passed ball, but a ground out ended the inning, with the score 5-2, Baker City.

"I thought right there we were going to climb back in, and maybe even take the lead with the heart of our order coming up with Hoffman up, bases loaded and no outs, but we get picked at first and don't make a good break for home. Those things are unfortunate," said Coach Bundy. "It's only our third loss of the season, and we've got 20-some-odd wins, so I think overall we're doing okay. It just seems like when you get those losses two days in a row, it's a little unexpected, but I think we'll come back tomorrow and play a good game against Twin."

Mountain Home managed just five hits off the Baker City pitcher. Cal Vivier had his RBI triple, Ricky Lee had a double, and Alex Hoffman, Ricky Baker and Brock Morris also had hits. Jake Hiler fell to 3-2 on the season, not making it out of the fifth inning. Tom Hennessey came in and shut down the Diamondbacks on two hits the rest of the way.

Royals 7

Cowboys 4

The Royals closed out their pool play in the tournament on Saturday, beating the Twin Falls Cowboys 7-4 at Capital High School.

The Cowboys scored an unearned run off Chris Rau to take a 1-0 lead after one, but the Royals got an unearned run of their own in the third to tie the game at 1-1.

The Royals took advantage of four walks, a hit and a hit batter to score three runs in the fourth to go up, 4-1. They added three more runs in the top of the sixth to increase their lead to 7-1.

Twin Falls scored a run in the sixth and scored two more in the seventh, and had the bases loaded when the final out was recorded.

"It's always good to win," said Coach Bundy after the game. "There was that inning there where their pitcher had a little bit of trouble locating and we were able to push some runs across with some walks. Chris pitched a good game with only a couple days rest, but he's got a full week of rest before we need him next weekend, so that will be good."

Cal Vivier led the Royals at the plate with a triple and two RBIs, and Ricky Lee had a hit and RBI. Chris Rau, Jake Hiler, Eric Christiansen, Gabe Anderson, Shawn Lewis and Tom Hennessey also had hits, and Alex Hoffman had an RBI. Chris Rau scattered nine hits and improved to 6-0 on the season.

Royals 10

Senators 0

The Royals narrowly missed on the tie-breaker system playing for third, and ended facing the Boise Senators for fifth, beating the Senators 10-0 in five innings.

Mountain Home sent 14 batters to the plate in the first inning and scored nine runs. They added another in the fifth to end the game early, 10-0.

"We came out really strong and scored nine runs in the first inning," said Coach Bundy. "We hit the ball solid and ran the bases well, and then finished it off in the fifth to win" by the ten-run rule.

Ricky Lee, Brock Morris and Cal Vivier each had two hits, Lee had a three-run home run, Morris two doubles and an RBI, and Cal Vivier a double and an RBI. Zane Bundy had a two-run single, Gabe Anderson also had a hit and Tom Hennessey had an RBI.

Jordan Cisna went the distance for the win in his first start of the season. He allowed just three hits and credited his teammates' defense behind him.

"We had a great first inning and scored nine runs and the team played great defense behind me -- not much more I can ask for after that."

The Royals improved to 23-3 on the season. They return to action this afternoon at Timberline Park in Boise for a 3 p.m. game with the Boise Gems. They face the Boise Seminoles for two at Fort Boise Friday starting at 4:30 p.m., and play a doubleheader at Kuna Saturday starting at 4 p.m.