Royals drop two at district to close out 2014 season

After winning their first two district tourney games, the Mountain Home Royals dropped two straight to be eliminated from the Area B Class A Eastern Division Tournament.

Royals 12, Senators 3

A seven-run fourth inning put the game away for Mountain Home Monday night as they downed the Boise Senators in the winner's bracket of the Area B Class A Eastern Division American Legion District Baseball Tournament at Mountain View High School in Meridian.

The seventh-seeded Senators were hoping for another upset, after knocking off the number two seeded Boise Gems the day before, and pushed across a run without the benefit of a hit in the top of the first. The Royals countered with a run in the bottom half of the inning and added three more in the second to go up 4-1.

Mountain Home erupted for seven runs in the fourth to take an 11-1 lead, but the Senators scored twice in the fifth to keep the game going, the Royals cruising to a12-3 win.

"Jesse (Cobos) threw outstanding," said Royals head coach Michael Hobgood after the game "If he cuts a couple walks down, I don't think they see first base.

"We hit, we executed, with the exception of just a few cases, but really, we were able to set the tempo and do what we wanted to do. Unfortunately we weren't able to get out when we wanted to in five, but we'll take the win anyway."

Teddy Reaume and Kody Arellano led a 13-hit attack with three hits each. Reaume had a double and triple, drove in a run and scored two, Arellano had a double, scored two and knocked in one. Tyler McCall and Levi Abrahamson both had two hits. McCall had a triple and drove in three runs, while Abrahamson scored two and drove in one. Shae Sterling and Cody Blakemore both had doubles and RBIs, Zach Petersen had a hit, and Bailey Miller-Hodge and Jesse Cobos both had RBIs.

Cobos went the distance for the win, scattering four hits while striking out six.

Toros 6, Royals 2

The Royals bats were unable to put together any offense Tuesday night and the result was a 6-2 loss to the Mountain View Toros in the semi-finals.

The fourth-seeded Toros put up three runs in the second and two more in the third to take a commanding 5-0 lead. They added another run in the top of the sixth to make it 6-0.

Mountain Home, which didn't have a base runner at third base until the sixth inning, scored two runs in the sixth, as runners at third base came home on wild pitches.

"We really struggled putting hits together," said Coach Hobgood after the game.

"We had a lot of pop-ups and struggled making the adjustments at the plate. They're a tough team, they won't give you anything, you have to earn everything you get, and when you walk guys, like we did, they're going to exploit you and they make you pay for your mistakes and they clean up theirs."

Teddy Reaume, Zach Petersen, Cody Blakemore, Kody Arellano and Bailey Miller-Hodge had hits for the Royals. Levi Abrahamson struck out six in five innings, but also walked six and hit tree batters, as the Toros used their five hits to score runs.

Capitals 3, Royals 2

The Royals faced the Boise Capitals again Wednesday night. Mountain Home had opened the tourney on Saturday with a 5-2 win over the Capitals, who had stayed alive with a win over the Boise Barons Thursday.

Mountain Home blew opportunities to score early in the game, but scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take 2-0 lead.

The Capitals tied the game with two runs in the sixth and added what proved to be the winning run in the top of the seventh to win 3-2 and end the Royals' season.

Coach Hobgood lamented on the team's inability to score early.

"We left a couple guys on third, a couple guys on second -- leadoff doubles, leadoff triples -- we just didn't execute. Some of that's coaching, some of it's hitters, but we were given a golden opportunity. Tyler McCall threw the best he's ever thrown in his life and he really deserved to win that game."

Tyler McCall was brilliant for the Royals, throwing five innings of shutout ball before a couple fluke hits opened the door for the Capitals to score two runs in the sixth.

Jesse Cobos, who came on to end the Boise sixth inning, suffered the loss, as the Capitals managed an unearned run in the seventh. Cobos finished the season 7-4.

Kody Arellano had two hits and scored a run for the Royals. Teddy Reame and Tyler McCall both had doubles and Shae Sterling and Levi Abrahamson had hits. Abrahamson had an RBI.

It is always hard to end the season on a loss, but Coach Hobgood agreed the Royals had a good season, going 31-19 overall.

"Absolutely. We've grown and we've got some younger guys who have grown and really, there's only one team in the country that's going to have the fortunate opportunity to end on a win, so there are hundreds of other teams that end the same way that we did, and I'm glad we went out this way.

"If we have to go out, I'd rather go out fighting, and we did that. I'm proud of them. They fought and they battled right up to the end, and we gave ourselves an opportunity."

With a youth-laden team this year, Hobgood agrees the future of Royals baseball is bright.

"Levi (Abrahamson) is going to be a huge loss -- he's our ace and our heart, so he's irreplaceable, but we do have guys that will step up and fill slots. We will be senior-heavy, and we don't know at this point who's going to go play (AA ball) for the Gems and that kind of stuff, but coming into high school, we feel real good, and this is one of those situations where hopefully, it hurts enough that it's motivation for guys when they're in the weight room, when they're at the hitting facility all off-season, they remember this, and decide in themselves that it's not going to happen again."