Royals win district, roll to state tournament

Wednesday, August 2, 2006

The Mountain Home Royals are returning to the state Class A American Legion Baseball Tournament for the first time in three years.

The Royals went through the Area B Class A tourney at Borah with five straight wins to capture the tournament championship and qualify for state, picking up wins last week against Treasure Valley, Nampa and the Boise Gems.

Mountain Home 10

Treasure Valley 0

(6 innings)

The Mountain Home Royals shot out to a 5-0 lead after two innings, more than enough for Royals pitcher Michael DesPres, who struck out 15 and allowed just one hit in the win, which ended early in the sixth by the 10-run rule, 10-0, on July 24 at Borah's Wigle Field.

"Obviously, another great outing by Mike DesPres," said Royals head coach Mark Cotton in radio comments after the game. "He's been clutch for us all year. We've put him in situations time after time and he always comes through for us."

The Royals needed the win to assure themselves of a trip to state. DesPres knew that and said after the game he was up for the challenge.

"This was a big game for us and what really helped me out a lot was I was able to mix up my pitches and hit my spots. Early on in the game, the umpire liked my spots and I was able to keep the ball away from the hitters. Our hitters scored some runs and kept my confidence up on the mound and I was able to concentrate on the hitters."

Coach Cotton agreed, the hitters came through.

"The sticks were there. Our sophomores had a great day at the plate. Jake Hiler had a great day, Alex Hoffman had a great day, and Chris Rau definitely started seeing the ball a lot better today, and he's been hitting well for us all season, too. All the way around, it was a great performance, and I couldn't be more proud of these guys."

Jake Hiler had three hits on the night, and drove in two runs, including the final run in the bottom of the sixth that ended the game early.

"It was a good night for me," said Jake Hiler. "A good night for Alex Hoffman and Chris Rau, too. That hit by Hoffman got things going."

Alex Hoffman had a double and a home run, the home run to lead off the bottom of the sixth, where the Royals also got hits from Michael DesPres and Jake Hiler to end the ball game.

Chris Rau and Bret Young both had RBI-doubles, and Cal Vivier also had a hit.

Michael DesPres improved to 5-2 on the season with the win.

The only hit he gave up was a lead-off single by Jake Davidson in the fifth that just got through the middle.

Mountain Home 11

Nampa Braves 7

The win over Treasure Valley put the Royals in the semi-finals against the Nampa Braves last Wednesday night at Wigle Field.

The Braves are the only Area B team to beat the Royals, winning a 7-4 contest in the first game of a doubleheader at Nampa on June 24. The Royals came back to take the second game, 11-9, in eight innings.

The Royals started slow against Nampa, and trailed 5-0 as they came to the plate in the bottom of the fourth. They had managed just three harmless singles in the first three innings, but in the fourth, Alex Hoffman walked, and Chris Rau singled. Hoffman came home on a sacrifice fly by Bret Young, and Rau scored on Michael DesPres' single to pull the Royals within three, 5-2.

Aaron Swartz got things going for the Royals in the bottom of the fifth with a lead-off double. After Vivier was retired, Alex Hoffman walked, and Chris Rau doubled in Swartz. Bret Young followed with a two-run double that tied the game at 5-5, and Joe Poseley's single scored Young, as the Royals had their first lead of the game, 6-5.

Nick Garcia led off the top of the sixth with a triple off Jake Hiler. A single by Josh Gray tied the game at 6-6, and ended the night on the mound for Hiler. Young came on in relief and struck out the side to end the Nampa threat.

Aaron Swartz again started things off for the Royals in the sixth with another double. Cal Vivier was hit by a pitch, and Alex Hoffman's single loaded the bases. Back-to-back singles by Chris Rau, Bret Young and Michael DesPres plated three runs, and the Royals would score two more before the inning was over, taking an 11-6 lead into the seventh inning.

In the top of the seventh, Nampa's first two batters reached on errors and the third walked to load up the bases with no one out. Bret Young got the first out on a strikeout, and the second on a fielder's choice that scored a run for Nampa.

After another walk loaded the bases back up, Chris Rau made a great defensive play to throw out the batter and end the inning and the ball game, the Royals winning 11-7, to advance to the championship game.

"I thought Aaron Swartz was a huge part of that (win)," said Coach Cotton. "He had a couple huge hits to get us going, and once he did that, we just broke out the sticks and it was a big confidence booster for everybody, because then they knew they could hit their guy.

"He (the Nampa pitcher) was definitely mowing us down for awhile," he said. But, he added, referring to the seven errors the Royals had in the game, "I will say seven errors is not going to get the job done at state.

"That's very uncharacteristic of us, but you expect you're going to have ugly games like that sometimes. I'm glad they bounced back and played better at the end, although that seventh was pretty scary."

Bret Young picked up the win with two innings of relief. He was happy to get the win.

"After that pitcher hung me a curve ball and I hit it down the line to get a couple RBIs (that tied the game at 5-5), I was just in a zone," Young said. "I told (Coach) Cotton I wanted the ball and he gave me the ball and I got the job done."

Young showed his maturity in the seventh, when a couple booted balls put the pressure on.

"I knew all I had to do was throw strikes and they'd eventually get them out. (Chris) Rau made a great play there at the end. There were a couple errors, but everything went well, because all I did was throw strikes. I knew my defense would back me up."

Young improved to 7-1 on the season, striking out four in two innings of relief work. Jake Hiler pitched the first five innings, striking out six.

Mountain Home 4

Boise Gems 2

The Royals faced the Boise Gems in the championship game Thursday night at Wigle Field. The Gems out-slugged the Nampa Braves 14-12 earlier in the evening to earn the right to meet the Royals -- that after a come-from-behind 11-10 ten-inning win over Emmett the night before.

Gems starting pitcher Sean Alspach was relieved after throwing nine straight balls to open the game. John Zacher inherited a 1-0 count on Alex Hoffman, and walked him on four straight pitches as the Royals had the bases loaded with no outs. Aaron Swartz scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris Rau, Cal Vivier scored on a single by Bret Young, and Alex Hoffman came home from third when Bret Young stole second and the throw went out to second base, and the Royals had an early 3-0 lead.

That would be all the runs the Royals would get until the sixth inning, but Royals right-hander Chris Rau, with great defensive play behind him, kept the Gems at bay.

The first defensive gem came in the top of the first when the Gems had the bases loaded with one out. Michael DesPres fielded Luke Miller's ground ball to third and threw to Joe Poseley at home for one, Poseley throwing to Jake Hiler at first for the third out to retire the side.

The Gems again came up empty in the second inning, when Sean Alspach singled with two out, and Jeff Kean was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple, the tag applied before Alspach reached home.

The Gems scored their first run in the fourth, getting three singles off Rau to score a run.

The Royals finally scored again in the sixth to take a 4-1 lead into the seventh.

In the top of the seventh, Chris Rau retired the first two batters before Andrew Shoemaker singled to keep the inning alive. Ryan Stephenson then drew a walk, and Cameron Olson followed with a single to score Shoemaker, but Aaron Swartz threw a strike to Michael DesPres at third to tag out Stephenson to end the ball game.

Chris Rau was happy to get the win.

"It felt pretty good tonight. I didn't have my best stuff, but it all worked out."

Rau, who improved to 9-0 on the season, gave up 11 hits, but just two of them were for extra bases.

"They weren't that aggressive on the bases, and they just kept getting singles off me, it's not like they were going deep. One kid hit it deep, but they threw him out at third, so whenever they did hit a really deep one, we always got them back throwing them out.

"My outfield was great tonight," Rau added, "tracking a lot of balls down that usually you wouldn't see caught. I'm appreciative of that."

Coach Cotton was happy to come away with the win in the low-scoring game.

"It was a weird game. We were definitely out of character, the way we hit the ball, and the way we fielded the ball. Hopefully we can get things together before we go to state. We should have been able to put that game away early, but I'm not taking anything away from them, they fought hard and they're tired -- they had a long tournament."

The Royals, averaging in double figures in both runs and hits on the season, were out-hit by the Gems, 11-5.

"I think in big games like this, the kids just are trying to do too much, and I think that's what we were doing. Guys are trying to hit balls out of the park, they're trying to make fabulous plays instead of just doing the little things and getting things done right, but that's just baseball.

"Chris Rau threw a great game. He was in the strike zone all day long. We didn't back him up as well as we could have, but hey, I'll take the 'W' and these kids will, too, and that's the first district championship in a while, and the kids can be proud of that."

Aaron Swartz, Bret Young, Joe Poseley, Tim Whitmarsh and Jake Hiler all had hits for the Royals. Cal Vivier, Chris Rau and Young all had RBIs.

The Royals head to Coeur d'Alene today and open state tournament play tomorrow afternoon.

"We don't know what to look for (at state)," said Coach Cotton.

"I'm sure there will be a lot of older teams there. I'm not sure just what we're going to do with our pitching rotation or anything.

"We're probably looking at throwing DesPres in the first game, because then you're looking at bringing him back on Sunday.

"The kids are really hyped about it, and hopefully, we'll have a good time up there. I've never been to Coeur d'Alene and a lot of these kids haven't either. It's supposed to be a beautiful place, and we'll try to make the most of it."

The Royals open the state tournament tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon against Jerome.

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