Royals continue to roll to victories

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The Mountain Home Royals had another busy week of American Legion baseball, winning six of seven games.

Mountain Home 13, 19

Boise Capitals 3, 1

The Royals returned home and to their league American Legion baseball schedule last Tuesday and took two run-ruled games from the Boise Capitals.

Chris Rau got the start in the first game, and had a shaky first inning, giving up three runs, but the Royals struck for four in the bottom half to lead, 4-3, after one.

Rau shut the Capitals down the rest of the way, and Mountain Home added three in the second and four in the third to go up, 11-3.

Michael DesPres' fourth hit of the game brought in Chris Rau, who had led off the fifth with a double. Jake Hiler's double an out later brought in DesPres to end the game, 13-3.

Rau improved to 3-0 on the season, scattering six hits while striking out five and walking six.

"Chris didn't have his best stuff, but he battled all day and got the job done," said Royals head coach Mark Cotton after the game.

"We definitely hit the ball really well. You can tell the guys are pretty fatigued, but they definitely didn't show it at the plate, but we could see it. They're a little bit sluggish, but we kind of expect that after as many games as we've played this week."

Michael DesPres and Jake Hiler both had four hits and five RBIs in the first game as the Royals pounded out 14 hits. Chris Rau had a double and a triple, two RBIs and scored four runs. Aaron Swartz, Cal Vivier Joe Poseley and Zane Bundy all had hits, Poseley had an RBI.

The Royals collected 15 hits and took advantage of seven Boise errors in the second game, scoring 10 runs in the first inning on their way to a 19-1 five inning win.

Mike Anderson and Alex Hoffman both had three hits and drove in four runs in the second game. Anderson had three doubles and Hoffman had a triple. Michael DesPres and Bret Young both had two hits, DesPres had a triple and drove in four runs, Young had a double and an RBI. Jeff Vogl, Derek Thorton, John Murdorf, Jake Hiler and Jesse Burton also had hits, Vogl drove in two runs, Thorton, one.

"The guys are really hitting the ball well," said Coach Cotton.

"They go up there with a plan, and they're all following through with it. I don't know what to say -- it's not that we've taught them anything different, they've just decided to come out and make the adjustments themselves."

Coach Cotton used three pitchers in the second game. Bret Young, who gave up the only run and only two hits the Capitals had, got the win. Tim Whitmarsh threw two innings of scoreless and hitless ball, Joe Poseley threw one.

Mountain Home Royals, 14, 16

Boise Seminoles 2, 8

The Royals remained unbeaten in league play, taking two from the visiting Boise Seminoles Wednesday night.

Aaron Swartz had a hard time finding the plate in the first inning, giving up a double and walking three and hitting one batter, giving up two runs. He settled down after that and got his curve ball working beautifully, striking out 10 batters and limiting the Seminoles to just two hits in five innings.

"His pitch-count was way up there in that first inning, but he finished out the rest of the game with 30-some pitches," said Cotton of Swartz' effort. "It was great to see him bounce back after the first inning. He showed a lot of maturity there, and it's good to see Aaron play like that because it's going to help us a lot down the stretch."

Michael DesPres continued his torrid hitting pace since returning from Montana, smacking two doubles among three hits while driving in a run. Jeff Vogl, Cal Vivier and Alex Hoffman each had two hits and two RBIs, Vivier had a triple, Hoffman, a double. Chris Rau and John Murdorf both had RBI-doubles, Derek Thorton, Jake Hiler and Jesse Burton each had RBI-singles.

In the second game the Royals scored four runs in each of the first four innings, and took a 14-2 lead into the fifth, hoping to end it there, but three errors in the inning helped lead to six Boise runs, and the game went seven, the Royals prevailing, 16-8.

"I think the guys just started getting complacent, and you expect that with those long doubleheaders, and Boise got those six runs in the fifth, but our guys responded," said Cotton.

"The thing that I'm most impressed with is the bench. They've been sitting there a little bit and they come out and they come out swinging like they want a job, and you love to see that out of all your guys, and we do see that of all our guys, and we're really happy about that!"

Zane Bundy had four hits -- two doubles -- and drove in three runs. Michael DesPres and Bret Yong both had three hits, Young two doubles and a triple, DesPres, a double and a triple, both knocked in two runs. Make Anderson, Joe Poseley and Chris Rau each had two hits, Rau had two RBIs, Anderson and Poseley each had one. Jordan Cisna and Derek Thorton also had hits, Cisna scored three runs, Thorton had an RBI.

Jordan Cisna picked up the win, pitching into the fifth inning.

Mike Anderson pitched the final three innings to get the save.

In a pre-game ceremony, the Mountain Home Royals expressed their appreciation to the members of American Legion Post 101, which had held a fundraiser for the Royals on June 17. Post 101 members presented Royals manager Travis Devore and the Royals a check for $1,800.

Mountain Home 15

Centennial Cannons 9

A 10-run sixth inning turned what looked like was going to be the Royals first conference division loss of the season into a 15-9 Mountain Home win Thursday night at Centennial High School in Meridian.

Mountain Home took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, getting a sacrifice fly by Alex Hoffman and a two-run home run by Chris Rau, but the Cannons got to Royals starter Bret Young for six runs on six hits in the bottom half of the inning.

The Royals cut the deficit to 6-4 in the top of the fourth, but Centennial added three unearned runs in the bottom of the inning to increase their lead to 9-4.

Mountain Home added another run in the fifth, and sent 15 batters to the plate in the six, scoring 10 runs to take the lead.

Tim Whitmarsh pitched three innings of scoreless relief to get the win. He struck out three and allowed just one hit.

"They had me a little worried there for a little while," said Royals head coach Mark Cotton in radio comments after the game.

"But they've fought all year and been in this situation before and proved that they could do it. I won't lie, I was a little nervous.

"This (Centennial) is a good ball club. They swing the stick well, but we had guys finally getting the ball on the ground, finally getting it out of the air. Zane Bundy came in a big hit, and Tim Whitmarsh was huge to come in like he did and that definitely gave us a lot of confidence, and they didn't give up, and that's always positive."

Chris Rau led the Royals at the plate with three hits and three RBIs, the big hit, the two-run homer. Mike Anderson had two hits including a double, scored three runs and drove in two runs. Alex Hoffman, Tim Whitmarsh, Bret Young, Jake Hiler and Joe Poseley all had hits and RBIs.

The win improved the Royals to 8-0 in division play, and 14-2 overall.

Mountain Home 4, 11

Nampa Braves 7, 9

The Royals rallied to win the second game and get a split with the Nampa Braves Saturday at Rodeo Park in Nampa.

Bret Young smacked a three-run home run in the first inning to give Mountain Home an early 3-0 lead in the first game.

Errors helped the Braves score one run in the first and two more in the second against Jake Hiler to tie the game at 3-3. Nampa got three more runs off Hiler in the third, and one more unearned run -- just three of their seven runs were earned -- off Royals reliever Michael DesPres in the fourth off to go up, 7-3. DesPres shut down the Braves the rest of the way, but the Royals could score just one more run, that in the seventh, to make it a 7-4 final.

Royals manager Travis DeVore agreed Nampa was very opportunistic.

"That definitely was the difference in the game. Every one of their runs they scored, they either reached on an error or a walk, and we gave them opportunities and they took advantage of them."

The Royals actually out-hit Nampa, 6-4, in the first game, but four errors and seven walks proved to be their downfall. Bret Young hit his third home run of the season, the three-run shot in the first inning. Alex Hoffman had an RBI-single, Joe Poseley and Jesse Burton both had doubles, and Jake Hiler and Aaron Swartz both had singles. Hiler fell to 1-1 on the season with the loss.

In the second game, both teams scored a run in the first inning, and it stayed 1-1 until the fourth. Mountain Home went up, 5-1, with four runs in the top of the fourth, but the Braves put across five in the bottom half, to lead, 6-5.

Chris Rau replaced Alex Hoffman as pitcher, and held the Braves in check as Mountain Home fought back to lead, 9-6, heading into Nampa's last at bat.

Rau got the first two outs on first-pitch fly-outs, but then walked the next batter and three straight doubles tied the game at 9-9, sending it into extra innings.

In the top of the eighth, Chris Rau and Michael DesPres both singled to lead off the inning. Jake Hiler had a pinch-hit sacrifice fly to give the Royals a 10-9 lead, and Joe Poseley followed with a pinch-hit RBI double to make it 11-9.

Michael DesPres again came on in relief, and shut out the Braves in the eighth to record the save, Chris Rau earning the victory to improve to 4-0.

"I was impressed with how well we came back a couple of times. We gave up the lead and had some clutch hitting, so it was an impressive game and DesPres threw a great eighth inning to secure the win for us," said Coach DeVore.

Tim Whitmarsh and Michael DesPres led a 13-hit attack with three hits apiece, DesPres had a double and two RBIs, Whitmarsh a triple and an RBI. John Murdorf had two hits and an RBI, Joe Poseley an RBI-double, Bret Young a double and an RBI, Chris Rau, Jordan Cisna and Steven Budine had hits, Aaron Swartz, Cal Vivier, Alex Hoffman, Jeff Vogl and Jake Hiler all had RBIs.

With the split, the Royals are now 15-3 on the season as they head into another busy week of baseball. Mountain Home plays at Timberline this evening against the Boise Gems at 6 p.m.

Tomorrow they open the Pepsi Tournament at Borah, taking on Mountain View at 9 a.m. and facing the Centennial Cannons at 11:45 a.m. They face the Eagle Vipers at 5:15 p.m. Friday, and see the Boise Gems again at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Those two games are at the Capital field.

Sunday's action at Borah has the consolation game at 9 a.m., the third-place game at noon, and the championship game at 3 p.m.

"We have the pitching staff that can accommodate those kinds of schedules," said DeVore.

"I think going into another tournament will be huge for us. I think you saw, as the week went on, we played seven games in five day, and I saw the intensity level of the kids slowly start to fade. I think it will be really good for us to step back into that (tournament) situation."

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