Royals set several firsts during weekend competition

Last Friday saw a couple of "firsts" for the Mountain Home Royals this season -- their first time getting 10-runned and their first time getting swept in a doubleheader, as the Emmett Blue Devils did the trick.

Otherwise, it was business as usual for the Royals who swept doubleheaders from Kuna and Glenns Ferry.

Royals 14, Kuna 1

Royals 17, 7

The Royal completed a sweep of the Kuna Diamondbacks at Kuna last Thursday, winning the first game, 14-1, in five, and taking the full seven innings to beat them 17-7 in the second game.

Mountain Home jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning in the first game, added a run in the second, five more in the third and four more in the fifth. That was more than enough for Jared Day, who limited the Diamondbacks to four hits while striking out eight to improve to 7-1 on the season.

Anthony Castillo had three hits in the game, including a double and drove in two runs. Joe Gutierrez and Jared Day both had two hits and drove in a run, Gutierrez had a double. Trevor Woodruff had a two-run double, Jake Hennessey a two-run single, Tom Hennessey had a double and two RBIs, and Skyler Podesek also had a hit.

In the second game, the Royals again scored four runs in the first, but Kuna put across three in the bottom half. A seven-run fourth inning made it 14-3, Royals, but Kuna scored three runs in the fifth to avoid the game ending by the 10-run rule.

Mountain Home made it 16-6 in the top of the sixth, but Kuna scored a run to keep the game going. The Royals added a run in the seventh to make it a 17-7 final.

David Bitrick led a 19-hit attack with five hits in the second game. He had two doubles and drove in two runs. Jake Hennessey had four hits and three RBIs, Jesse Rodriguez had three hits and drove in four runs. Skyler Quintal and Gage Curtis both had two hits. Quintal had a triple and scored three runs and Curtis had a double. Ronnie Young, Ryan Goldsby and Alex Rodriguez also had hits, Young had two RBIs and Goldsby one.

Jesse Rodriguez pitched four innings and got the win. Skyler Quintal got the save.

"Obviously, offensively we put up the runs there, but I don't think we're as sharp as we should be," said Royals head baseball coach Mark Cotton.

"A lot of that is just the week that we had -- we didn't practice a lot and were away from the game four or five days and so you've got to kind of get it back -- but I think we're getting there. Defensively, we're very solid, and Jared threw a great game -- he only threw 60-some pitches."

Emmett 12, Royals 2

Emmett 10, Royals 0

The Royals hosted the Emmett Blue Devils in a conference doubleheader with first place on the line in conference play as both teams had just one loss in conference. But the Royals, who have been without one of their top hitters and pitchers, Eric Christiansen, who is recovering from foot surgery, were dealt a blow when Jake Hennessey, who leads the team in RBIs, doubles and is tied with Christiansen for the best batting average (.500), was sick and unable to play.

For whatever reasons, the Royals did not show up ready to play and suffered their two worst losses of the season, 12-2 and 10-0.

Fielding errors did the Royals in during the first game as Emmett jumped out to an 8-0 lead. It ended in six, 12-2. The Blue Devils only outhit the Royals, 12-8.

Skyler Quintal had two hits to lead the Royals, Tom Hennessey, Skyler Podesek, Alex Rodriguez, Trevor Woodruff, Anthony Castillo and Joe Gutierrez also had hits. Hennessey had a double and Rodriguez had an RBI.

Rodriguez took the loss, his second in seven decisions. He left the game in the fifth inning when he was hit in the leg by a line drive.

The second game started out as a pitching duel between Emmett's Taylor Nicholsen and Mountain Home's Trevor Woodruff.

The Blue Devils scored a run in the first, and added two more in the third to take a 3-0 lead. It stayed that way until the sixth, when Emmett took advantage of Royal errors -- mental as well as physical -- and added some timely hits to erupt for seven runs to go up 10-0.

Nicholsen set the Royals down one-two-three in the sixth, striking out the last two, to end the game in six innings 10-0 by the 10-run rule.

David Bitrick and Austin Bodily had the only two hits against Taylor Nicholsen, who struck out 14 batters. Trevor Woodruff suffered the loss, to fall to 4-2 on the season.

Coach Cotton was hoping his Royals would make a better show of themselves.

"In all phases of the game, we didn't play very well -- defensively, offensively and on the mound. One bright spot today for us was Austin Bodily. He did an awesome job at the plate and in the field. It was great to see Austin play the way he did today, but other than that, there were not a whole lot of bright spots in today's games, and that's unfortunate.

The losses dropped the Mountain Home squad to 10-3 in league play and 27-6 on the season.

Royals 11, Pirates 8

Royals 12, Pirates 9

The Royals traveled down to Glenns Ferry Saturday for a doubleheader and outlasted the scrappy Pirates in both games.

Mountain Home batted around in the first inning of the first game and took a 4-0 lead, which held up until the Pirates struck for three runs in the fourth.

The Royals added two more in the top of the fifth, but a three-run effort by Glenns Ferry in the bottom of the inning tied the game at 6-6.

Both teams scored two runs in the sixth to tie it at 8-8. A couple Pirate errors in the seventh helped Mountain Home score three to go up, 11-8. The Pirates had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh, but failed to score, Mountain Home winning it 11-8.

The Pirates actually outhit the Royals, 9-7, in the first game, but Mountain Home scored seven unearned runs in the win.

Ronnie Young and Skyler Podesek both had two hits in the game. Young had a triple and drove in a run, Podesek had a double and scored three runs. Joe Gutierrez, Jesse Rodriguez and Ryan Goldsby also had hits. Rodriguez had an RBI.

Tom Hennessey went six innings to get the win to improve to 4-0. Gage Curtis pitched the seventh to get the save.

The Royals built up a 7-2 lead in the second game after three innings. A three-run fifth for the Pirates cut it to 7-5. Mountain Home pushed it to 10-5 in the top of the sixth, but Glenns Ferry answered with four in the bottom of the inning to come within one, 10-9.

Three hits by Mountain Home produced two runs in the top of the seventh and the Royals held on for a 12-9 win.

Skyler Quintal, Skyler Podesek, Anthony Castillo, Gage Curtis and Jared Day all had two hits for the Royals. Quintal had a triple and knocked in two runs, Podesek had two doubles, Castillo had two doubles and an RBI, Curtis had an RBI, and Day had a triple and an RBI. Jesse Rodriguez and Ryan Goldsby also had hits. Rodriguez had a double while Goldsby had two RBIs and scored three runs.

Anthony Castillo picked up the win to improve to 2-0 and Gage Curtis got the save.

"Sometimes you just take the wins where you can get them," said Coach Cotton of the Glenns Ferry sweep.

"I definitely don't think we're playing our best baseball right now coming down the stretch heading into district. We've got to figure some things out next week. Some really good things happened today, and we've just need to build on those and we'll see what happens."

The Mountain Home team improved to 11-3 in league play and 29-6 overall.

They have a busy week to close out their regular season schedule this week. They were home against the Centennial Cannons for two Tuesday night, travel to Borah's Wigle Field for two against the Boise Senators starting at 4:30 p.m. today (Wednesday, July 14), and close out the regular season schedule Thursday night at Capital with two against the Boise Capitals beginning at 5 p.m.

They have an exhibition game against an Over-30 team from Boise on Friday night.

The Royals will host the Area B Class A Eastern Division Tournament July 19-24 at Eastside Park.