Royals take second at district but fall at state

The Mountain Home Royals saw their American Legion baseball season come to a close on a three-game losing streak, dropping the district championship game to the Boise Gems, and going out in two at the State American Legion Tournament.

Boise Gems 14

Mtn. Home 5

The Mountain Home Royals faced the Boise Gems last Monday for the Area B Class A American Legion District Tournament championship at Rodeo Park in Nampa.

Playing in their ninth game in six days, the Royals ran out of gas as the Gems pounded them 14-5 for the district championship.

The Gems scored twice in the first and third innings, while Mountain Home got single runs in those innings, but the Royals added two runs in the fifth to tie the game at 4-4.

Cam Olson, who had three hits and six RBIs for the game, smashed a three-run home run over the left field wall in the top of the sixth off Royals starter Jake Hiler as Boise regained the lead, 8-4, and the Gems added six more in the seventh off Royals reliever Tom Hennessey to shoot out to a 14-4 lead.

Mountain Home managed a run in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 14-5 final.

Mountain Home managed just six hits in the ball game. Ricky Lee and Chris Rau both had two hits. Rau had two RBIs and Lee had a double and scored two runs.

Brock Morris and Jordan Cisna had the Royal's other hits. Jake Hiler had an RBI.

Royals head coach Matt Bundy thought playing all those games going through the consolation bracket got to his team in the championship game.

"Obviously the boys are disappointed, but I want them to realize that we really overcame some obstacles to get to this game, and I really want them to focus on the positives. I know when you get beat 14-5, and they've got a couple of kids hitting dingers on you, it's hard, but we've played so many baseball games in the last few days, and we were having fun today.

"It's just one of those deals where you run a little short of gas in the tank there, but I don't want to take anything away from this season.

"We've got a strong district -- there's 20-some-odd teams in our district -- we won our conference, and we came in here and take second at district to the Gems, a quality organization, and it's just been a very successful good year and we're really looking forward to the state tournament!"

The Royals went into the State Tournament minus one of their leaders. Alex Hoffman, who was batting .382 with 44 RBIs, 13 doubles, five triples and three home runs, tore ligaments in his foot in the Mountain View game when he tagged up on a fly ball and went to third.

"That's as freak of an accident as you can get," said Alex, on crutches. "As soon as my foot hit that bag, I knew something was wrong. It's not the way I wanted to go out, but what can you do -- it's over with -- and all I can do from here is look forward and cheer my teammates on at state."

Buhl Tribe 8

Mtn. Home 3

The Royals opened the state tournament Friday morning at Timberline Park in Boise against the Buhl Tribe. A seven-run fourth inning by the Tribe did them in 8-3.

Buhl went up 1-0 in the second, scoring an unearned run off Royals' starter Chris Rau. Mountain Home grabbed the lead in the third, scoring three runs after two were out, to take a 3-1 lead.

It stayed 3-1 Royals until the bottom of the fourth, where a walk and seven straight hits -- some of them infield hits -- produced seven runs and ended Chris Rau's stint on the mound. Eric Christiansen held the Tribe scoreless after that, but the Royals were shut out the rest of the way, losing 8-3.

Eight Royals had hits against Buhl, with Brock Morris, Jake Hiler and Ricky Baker getting doubles. Hiler had an RBI. Tom Hennessey had a two-run single and Ricky Lee, Chris Rau, Cal Vivier and Eric Christiansen also had hits.

Chris Rau suffered the loss, his first in 11 decisions.

"Chris was actually throwing the ball pretty well," said Coach Bundy after the game, "and then they just execute small-ball, and we just can't stop it. It's not something that the boys can't do, because we've fielded bunts all season long and have shut teams down when they've played small-ball, but it was just one of those days where it just doesn't bounce into your glove or something.

"I don't have an answer for that, but I think we're going to be okay. All season long we've come back from adversity, and I've just got a feeling that tomorrow's going to be a good morning and we're going to come and have a good baseball game and have some fun and win another game for Mountain Home and for the Royals."

Upper Valley 3

Mtn. Home 2

The Upper Valley Bulldogs ended the season for the Mountain Home Royals Saturday morning at Timberline Park, 3-2.

Upper Valley got on the scoreboard in the second inning on a solo home run by Jordan Hepworth. The Royals tied the game in the fourth as Eric Christiansen scored on Ricky Lee's ground-out.

The Bulldogs got three straight hits off Gabe Anderson in the top of the fifth to go up 3-1.

Mountain Home got one back in the sixth to make it 3-2, but could score no more, losing 3-2.

For the game the Royals left the bases loaded three innings in a row, and left 14 runners on base for the game.

"Unfortunately, we left way too many guys on," said Coach Bundy after the game.

"We didn't get a lot of hits, but we did have some guys get some hits and score some runs, and I thought we were going to be all right.

"We came in there at the end and got some base runners on, and get a passed ball and just don't quite execute to get our runner in there to tie the game up, which would have been nice. You can't fault the runner, that's a tough call there when you can't see the ball out of the glove. Things like that happen."

The Royals had just four hits in the ball game, but Upper Valley starter Justin Mackert walked nine batters and hit another, giving the Royals plenty of opportunities to score.

Eric Christiansen had two of the four hits, one a double, and Brock Morris and Zane Bundy also had hits.

Gabe Anderson suffered the loss, despite pitching well enough to win. He gave up seven hits, struck out three and walked just one. He finished the season with a 6-3 record.

The Royals finished what was a great season with 40 wins and just 11 losses.

"Overall, from a coaching perspective, it's been a wonderful experience with these guys," said Coach Bundy. "We've got our six seniors leaving and I've been around those guys for a long time. They're six of the greatest kids that have ever played the game, and some of them are going on to play college (ball), and others aren't, but I'm hoping that the lessons they've learned here in American Legion baseball are lessons that propel them to future success.

"I look at this group of Royals, and as a society, I think we're in good hands with kids like this coming up."