Royals season ends suddenly

The American Legion baseball season came to an abrupt end for the Mountain Home Royals at the Area B Class A American Legion Eastern Division Tournament at Centennial on July 19.

The Royals, who went 15-5 in division play, good enough for the third seed, opened with a 7-3 win over the sixth-seeded Centennial Cannons on July 16.

Up next were the second-seeded Boise Senators and a nine-run fourth inning by the Senators spelled disaster, as the Royals fell 11-7 on July 18.

That set up the showdown with the Boise Gems, the number four seed, and the Royals fell short, 5-4, on July 19, to be ousted from the tourney.

This year's Royals ball club was the youngest in several years and Royals first year head coach Alex Hoffman thought they made lots of improvement throughout the season.

"They really have come a long ways, on and off the field," the coach said. "Even after this game is over and said and done with, I still believe that this is a state-quality ball club, and I'll stick with that."

The Royals finished with an overall 21-11 record. All but one player, Ronny Young, will be eligible to come back next year. Young had an outstanding season, batting .438 with 25 RBI, eight doubles, two triples and a home run.

Looking at season statistics, the Royals batted .329 as a team to their opponents' .293.

Jake Hennessey was the team leader in several categories. He led the team in hitting (.449), hits (44), runs (44), doubles (12), home runs (2) and walks (20). His 27 RBIs were second on the team to Alex Rodriguez, who had 32.

The Royals had four players that batted over .400. Besides Hennessey and Young, Austin Bodily hit .431 and Skylar Quintal finished with a .413 batting average.

Quintal had the least amount of strikeouts, just one in 63 at bats.

Pitching-wise, Jared Day had the best record for the Royals, going 5-0 with a 4.00 earned run average. Alex Rodriguez had the best ER. among active pitchers, sporting a 2.14 ERA. He had a 4-2 record, and pitched the most innings (42), recorded the most strikeouts (47) and gave up the most walks (22).

The Royals had a 5.33 team ERA, while their opponents recorded a 7.24 ERA.