Royals sweep Kuna, split Boise double header

The Mountain Home Royals batted in a doubleheader split with the Boise Gems and dominated the field to sweep the Kuna Diamondbacks during American Legion baseball action last week.

Royals 6, Gems 12

Royals 10, Gems 0

The Mountain Home Royals salvaged a split with the Boise Gems in a league doubleheader at Timberline Park in Boise on Friday. Dropping their opener to Boise, 13-6, the Royals bounced back to blank the Gems, 10-0.

In the doubleheader opener, the Royals grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the second with the Gems responding with one run to close out the inning.

Brian Camacho's two-run homerun in the third put the Gems up 3-2, but David Bitrick hit one out in the top of the fourth with Skyler Quintal aboard to give the Royals a 4-3 lead. Mountain Home held the lead until the bottom of the fifth when the Gems sent 14 batters to the plate, scoring nine runs to take a commanding 12-4 lead.

Mountain Home scored two runs in the top of the sixth but fell short at the plate as they lost to the Gems, 13-6.

"I don't think we came out to the ball field in the right mind-set today," said Royals Head Coach Mark Cotton regarding the first loss. "It took us a little while to get going, and we had a bad call in the fifth inning when things started to fall apart.

Cotton said the team was unable to respond after it lost its early lead.

"That's kind of a scary thing, getting closer to tournament time where I'd like to see us handle adversity a little bit better than that," the coach added. "What it really comes down to is we just didn't play very good defense."

The Royals managed just six hits in the first game. Skyler Quintal had two hits while scoring two runs and drove in another. David Bitrick had a two-run home run with Alex Rodriguez earning an RBI for Mountain Home. Jake Hennessey, Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Castillo racked up additional hits for the Royals. Jared Day suffered the loss for the Royals, his first in seven decisions.

In the second game, Rodriguez struck out seven and allowed just three hits to improve to 5-1 on the season. He also had two hits and scored two runs. Trevor Woodruff had four hits, including a double and three runs. Hennessey hit two doubles out of three hits, while Ronnie Young finished the game with a double while driving in four runs. Joe Gutierrez and Jesse Rodriguez both had hits and RBIs while and Skyler Quintal put away a double for the Royals.

"We came out with the sticks the second game and hit the ball a ton," Cotton said.

Hennessey remains a "big catalyst" for the Mountain Home squad, the coach added.

"It was just two different baseball teams from game one to game two. We've got five or six guys missing right now, and we've got guys like Ronnie Young who's got to step in there and show what they're made of. It's good to see a guy who hasn't had many at bats step in and get the job done and show that he can contribute. That was... huge for us tonight."

Royals 12, Diamondbacks 6

Royals 7, Diamondbacks 6

The Royals continued to dominate the plate as they hosted the visiting Kuna Diamondbacks on Saturday, walking away with two key wins, 12-6 and 7-6.

Mountain Home took an early 5-0 lead over the Diamondbacks in the first game, but Kuna battled back and tied the game at 6 in the top of the sixth. The Royals put the game away with six runs in the bottom of the sixth for the win.

Trevor Woodruff went the distance for Mountain Home, striking out 11 and giving up just one earned run as he improved to 4-1 for the season. Woodruff also helped the cause at the plate with three hits and an RBI.

Alex Rodriguez also had three hits, including a double and a triple, to score three runs. Skyler Quintal scored two runs off two hits, including a double. David Bitrick, Jake Hennessey, Anthony Castillo, Ronnie Young and Joe Gutierrez also had hits with Bitrick and Hennessey driving in two runs each. Castillo had an RBI while Gutierrez had a double for Mountain Home.

In the second game, the Royals lost the lead in the fifth inning when Kuna scored four runs to take a 6-5 lead, but Mountain Home battled back to score two in the sixth for the 7-6 win.

Bitrick had four hits in the game, scoring two runs and an RBI. Trevor Woodruff had two hits and two RBI, Rodriguez, Gage Curtis, Ronnie Young, Castillo and Gutierrez also had hits. Rodriguez drove in two runs while Curtis had a triple and an RBI.

Skyler Quintal picked up the win for Mountain Home, working two scoreless innings to relieve Curtis.

Cotton remained cautiously pleased with Mountain Home's sweep of Kuna.

"I don't think it was our best performance of the year," he said. "We made a lot of errors out there, but I think offensively we hit the ball really well and hit in the clutch. As the game got closer, we started hitting the ball in tough spots, so that was good to see."

The first game with the Diamondbacks was a league game and improved the Royals to 7-1 in league play. The wins improved Mountain Home to 23-4 overall.