Royals sweep Barons in baseball season opener

The Mountain Home Royals American Legion baseball team opened its 2013 season with a doubleheader sweep of the Boise Barons Saturday at Bishop Kelly, winning the first game 6-3 in nine innings and rolling to a 20-4 five-inning win in the second game.

Hits were hard to come by in the first game, as Mountain Home managed just three and Boise four. The Barons used hits in the first and second innings to score runs to go up 2-0.

The Royals scored an unearned run in the fourth to cut the deficit to 2-1, but Boise added a run in the bottom of the sixth to take a 3-1 lead into the seventh inning.

Mountain Home manufactured two runs on a walk, a couple errors, and a hit to score twice in the seventh to tie the game and force extra innings.

After a scoreless eighth inning by both teams, the Royals scored three times in the top of the ninth without the benefit of a hit to take a 6-3 lead. Skylar Quintal, who came on in relief in the seventh, retired the eight batters he faced, four by strikeouts, and picked up the win.

John Kennison, Jesse Rodriguez and Jesse Cobos had Mountain Home's hits in the first game. Zach Petersen had two RBIs and Teddy Reaume and Bailey Miller-Hodge both scored two runs.

In the second game, the Royals used four hits, an error, a walk and two hit batters to score seven runs in the first inning and take a 7-0 lead.

The Barons got three runs in the bottom of the inning on a three-run home run by Cooper Doke to make it 7-3, but that would be as close as they would come as Mountain Home scored seven more in the second, a single run in the third, two in the fourth and three in the fifth to go up 20-3.

The Barons added an unearned run in the fifth to make it a 20-4 final, with the game ending after five innings by the 10-run rule.

Royals manager and head coach Alex Hoffman was happy to get the sweep.

"That was nice. We sure opened it up that second game. Granted, their pitching wasn't as tough. They kind of came at us with their best that first game, I believe, and it did show, but for us to come out and play a closer game than we needed to play that first game, and show up and score some runs early and keep on it in the second game, that was impressive."

Mountain Home had 12 hits against five Boise pitchers in the second game. Danny Brescia, Jesse Rodriguez, Jesse Cobos and Teddy Reaume each had two hits, Reaume had a triple and four RBIs, Cobos had three RBIs and scored three runs, Brescia had two RBIs and scored twice and Rodriguez scored two runs and knocked in one. Tyler McCall, Jake Bennett, Cody Blakemore and Skylar Quintal also had hits.

Meanwhile, McCall had a double and scored twice and he and Bennett and Blakemore each drove in two runs, Quintal scored two runs and had one RBI. John Kennison and Zach Petersen both scored two runs.

Petersen gave up just three hits in four innings of work, striking out four and getting the win.

The Royals head to Idaho Falls for a tourney that starts on Thursday. Coach Hoffman expects to see some good competition at the tournament.

"It's going to be tough, and I know we're going to be seeing some quality ball clubs there, at least that's the approach I have every time I take a team out of town, I just assume we're going to play the Yankees, and that's the way we're going to approach it, but if we show up like we did today (at Bishop Kelly), things aren't going to work out in our favor, so that's definitely going to be a main priority going into this week's practice."

The Royals will open at 3 p.m. Thursday against the Idaho Falls Bees at Melaleuca Field.

They play the Idaho Falls Knights at Hillcrest High School at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning, and face the Shelley Russets at 2:30 p.m. Friday. They take on the Dixie Flyers out of St. George, Utah, at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Hillcrest.

The championship game between the two teams with the best record in the tourney is set for 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.