Royals lose in second round over Boise in district tourney

The Mountain Home Royals opened the Area B Class A Eastern Division District Tournament with a win over Canyon County, but lost to the Boise Capitals in the second round.

Earlier in the week, the Royals had closed out their regular season schedule with a loss at Centennial, and a split at Kuna.

Centennial 5

Royals 3

Mountain Home had their three-game win streak snapped last Monday night at Centennial when they lost to the Cannons 5-3.

Mountain Home managed to score two runs in the top of the first inning, but the Cannons tied it with two unearned runs in the bottom half of the inning.

The Royals regained the lead with a run in the third, but Centennial scored three times in the fourth after two were out to take a 5-3 lead. Mountain Home hit the ball hard, but couldn't find any holes to battle back, losing to the Cannons, 5-3.

"We had a couple errors early that are really magnified now, after a 5-3 score," said Royals head coach Mark Cotton. "We put the ball in play and hit the ball hard, right at people, I was excited about that.

"Trevor obviously didn't have his best stuff today, but he battled, we just didn't make plays behind him like we should.

"We've got to figure it out. We start district this weekend, so we've got to find it out between here and there."

The Royals hit the ball hard, but managed just four hits. Skyler Podesik had two of them, and Jake Hennessey and Alex Rodriguez had the other two, Rodriguez had an RBI. Eric Christiansen and Tom Hennessey also had RBIs.

Trevor Woodruff gave up only five hits, while striking out six and walking five, and just three of the five runs were earned. He dropped to 4-3 on the season.

Royals 6, 11

Kuna 7, 1

After seeing Kuna battled back to win the first game, 7-6, in their last at bat, the Royals regrouped and 10-runned the Diamondbacks 11-1 in five innings in the second game, as they closed out their regular season schedule at Kuna last Tuesday.

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the first game. Kuna scored in the third inning to tie the game at 1-1.

Errors, walks and timely hitting helped Mountain Home score five runs in the top of the fifth to go up, 6-1, but Kuna came back to score four in the bottom half of the inning, to make it 6-5, Royals.

The score stayed 6-5 until the bottom of the seventh, when Kuna's first two batters singled, and were moved to third and second by a sacrifice. The next batter's ball got through the infield to left field, scoring two runs, the Diamondbacks winning 7-6.

"All season long, with these close games, all it goes back to is unearned runs and not making plays when we really need them, and we didn't make a play there in the seventh, but you can't just magnify the one thing. We had a huge lead and let them back in it as well with other errors," said Coach Cotton after the game.

"Earlier in that inning we had a busted bunt coverage, so it was a bunch of things that led to this one-run loss, but hopefully, these guys will sit back and think about it and let it hurt for a minute, and come back in the second game with the old intensity."

Alex Rodriguez and Ricky Lee both had two including a double. Rodriguez drove in two runs. Lee scored two runs. Skyler Podesik and Brock Morris also had hits. Podesik had an RBI. Jake Hennessey and J.T. Cristobal also had RBIs. Alex Rodriguez pitched into the sixth inning before being relieved by Jared Day.

Day suffered the loss to drop to 2-1.

In the second game Eric Christiansen pitched and hit his way to his seventh win of the season as the Royals won in five, 11-1.

Christiansen allowed just two hits and struck out 12. He helped himself out at the plate, with a three-run home run, his second of the season. Tom Hennessey had two hits, including a double, and also drove in three runs. David Bitrick had two doubles and a triple and had two RBIs. Kevin Anderson had a two-run triple, and Brock Morris, Jared Day and Devan Wilkinson also had hits. Morris had an RBI.

"It was nice to see them battle back and play like they're capable," said Coach Cotton after the game. "Eric pitched a great game and hit that home run. David Bitrick had a huge game at the plate."

The split gave the Royals a 20-12 overall record. They finished 11-9 in league play.

Coach Cotton was optimistic his Royals can put it all together at district.

"Typically, these guys are up for tournaments. Earlier in the season when we played in the Wood Bat Tournament, we had a great tournament, and hopefully, when you get in a tournament the mind-set changes and the intensity comes up a little bit, and they step their game up, and mine as well, as a coach, obviously making better decisions here and there, and hopefully, we're all on the same page."

Royals 6

Cobras 1

The Royals ended up as the number seven seed, and opened the Area B Class A Eastern Division District Tourney Saturday night against the Canyon County Cobras, a team from Nampa Christian that the Royals had swept during the season. After a shakey start, the Royals went on to beat the Cobras 6-1.

The Cobras got to Royals starter and winning pitcher Jared Day for an unearned run in the first inning. Mountain Home manufactured an unearned run of its own in the third to tie the game, and added another run in the fourth to go up 2-1.

The Royals put together four of their six hits in the fifth and scored four runs, the final two on a two-run home run by Eric Christiansen that made it 6-1 Royals.

J.T. Cristobal relieved Jared Day in the sixth inning, but hit the first batter, gave up a hit, and then walked the bases loaded with no one out. Alex Rodriguez came on in relief to strike out the side and end the inning with the bases still full. Rodriguez set the Cobras down in order in the seventh to get the save.

"The thing that was scary was we were hitting the ball really hard, but we were hitting it right at them," said Coach Cotton in radio comments after the game, talking about the slow start.

"Normally when that starts happening, we start worrying that nothing's going to fall, but we had some clutch hitting and we got guys on, and they made a mistake in the third inning and that kind of got the momentum going for us. Once we got a guy on base and got things rolling, it seemed like the team relaxed a little bit and hit the ball well all day and played good defense, and obviously, pitched it well for the most part.

"We got in a couple jams. Jared, being a young guy, threw very well for his first outing of throwing in a district tournament at this level. He didn't have his best stuff, but battled, and kept us in the baseball game long enough, and then obviously, Alex coming in and striking out the side with the bases loaded, that was huge."

Skyler Podesik had two hits and drove in a run. Eric Christiansen had a two-run home run, his third homer of the season. Ricky Lee had a hit and RBI, Alex Rodriguez and Brock Morris also had hits, and Jake and Tom Hennessey both had RBIs.

Jared Day went five innings, giving up one unearned run and two hits, striking out five, hitting two and walking one, improving to 3-1 in the season. Alex Rodriguez picked up his second save of the season.

Capitals 6

Royals 4

The Boise Capitals erupted for four runs in the sixth inning to come from behind to beat the Royals 6-4 in second round tourney action Sunday afternoon.

The game featured two of the better pitchers in the district, as Mountain Home's Trevor Woodruff went against the Capitals Mike Wickham.

Each team managed a run in the first inning, but the pitchers did not allow any more runs heading into the fifth inning.

With the bases loaded and no one out, Eric Christiansen doubled in two runs to make it 3-1, Royals, but Mike Wickham settled down to strike out the next three batters to get out of the inning.

Tanner Daly's two-out double in the bottom of the fifth plated one run for the Capitals, as they narrowed the Mountain Home lead to 3-2.

Things fell apart for Mountain Home in the bottom of the sixth, as John Calhoun led off the inning with a single, stole second, and came home on Coby Willis's single, Willis ending up at third base when the throw from the outfield missed the cut off and went into the Capitals' dugout.

Sean Powers then walked, and Willis came home on a fielding error on a ground ball to third.

Royals pitcher Trevor Woodruff was then ejected from the game and John McCabe came in and got a bouncer back to him for one out, and a double play ball to end the inning, but when the dust had cleared, the Capitals had scored four runs to take a 6-3 lead.

Mike Wickham struck out the first two Royals batters in the seventh, bringing his total to 14 for the game. He then walked Alex Rodriguez, and was relieved by Andrew Quijas. Tom Hennessey then singled, and Skyler Podesik singled, bringing in Rodriguez, to make it 6-4. David Bitrick then hit a hard liner to the shortstop to end the ball game.

The Royals managed six hits in the game. Eric Christiansen had a double and three RBIs. Skyler Podesik, Ricky Lee, Jake and Tom Hennessey and Chris Maholick also had hits. Podesik had an RBI.

Trevor Woodruff fell to 4-4 on the season with the loss.

The Royals returned to district tournament action Tuesday morning against the winner of Monday's game between the Canyon County Cobras and Mountain View.