Royals pick up five wins out of six games last week

The Mountain Home Royals picked up five more wins in six American Legion baseball games last week.

Royals 12

Seminoles 1

The Mountain Home Royals scored four runs in the second, third and fourth innings last Thursday night to down the Boise Seminoles, 12-1, at Fort Boise.

Eric Christiansen scattered three hits through five innings to get the victory, his third in four decisions. He also had two hits and knocked in a run. Ricky Lee had two hits and drove in three runs.

Steven Budine had a hit and two RBIs and Ricky Baker had a hit and RBI. Joe Poseley had a double and Jake Hiler and David Zito also had hits, and Tom Hennessey had two RBIs.

Mountain Home Royals head coach Mark Cotton praised the pitching effort of Eric Christiansen.

"Last week when we faced Buhl, he had a rough outing and got hit around a little bit, but today he came out and threw very, very well. It's very exciting to see our young guys pitch that well!"

Royals 11, 7

Senators 6, 5

The Royals faced a good Boise Senator team Thursday night at home and battled them tough, winning two close games, 11-6, and 7-5.

Mountain Home led, 2-1, after an inning, but the Senators scored three in the top of the second to go up, 4-2. The Royals answered with three in the bottom of the second to regain the lead, 5-4. Boise scored two in the third to go up, 6-5, but the Royals answered with two in the bottom half to go up, 7-6. They would add two in the fifth and sixth to make it an 11-6 final.

Ricky Lee had three hits and three RBIs, and Zane Bundy had two hits and two RBIs. Jake Hiler had a double and two RBIs, and Jordan Cisna and Gabe Anderson both had hits and RBIs, and Brock Morris and David Zito had hits, Zito scored three runs. Gabe Anderson picked up the win, to improve to 4-0, and David Zito threw 2.33 innings of scoreless relief to earn his second save.

"Gabe Anderson threw very well for us," said Coach Cotton after the game. "We put him in a lot of holes as far as our defense goes, but he stepped up and got the job done. David Zito came in and closed down the game. It's nice when a game's close like that and you a can bring guys in and shut the game down, and then offensively, we had a lot of great efforts, too. Zane Bundy really started hitting the ball well today, and Ricky Lee and Jake Hiler hit the ball well, and it was a great ball game. It's good for those guys to be in close ball games, because they haven't been in a ton of them, but when they have, to face the adversity the way we did today, I was proud of them."

In the second game, Shawn Lewis doubled in Eric Christiansen in the second inning to give the Royals a 1-0 lead, which held up until the top of the fourth when the Senators pushed across a couple unearned runs to take a 2-1 lead. A two-run single by Tom Hennessey in the bottom of the fourth gave the Royals the lead back for good, and they built up a 7-3 lead.

Jake Hiler came on in the top of the seventh to shut down a Senator rally, as the Royals won, 7-5.

Chris Rau picked up the win, going four innings. Jordan Cisna threw two innings, David Zito pitched a third of an inning, and Jake Hiler got the final two outs for the save. Hiler and Eric Christiansen both had two hits, Christiansen a double and an RBI. Tom Hennessey had a hit and two RBIs, Jordan Cisna, Joe Poseley and Shawn Lewis each had hits and RBIs, and Ricky Lee also had a hit.

"We had a great outing by Chris Rau, and Jordan Cisna threw well for us, and he hasn't got a whole lot of time on the mound, but he did a great job, and then Jake (Hiler), coming in and closing the game down when it got close at the end, that's all you can ask for," said Coach Cotton. "It was a great effort and I couldn't be more proud of these guys!"

The sweep of the Senators improved the Royals to 17-5 overall. Both games counted as league games, proving Mountain Home to 8-2 in league.

Royals 4

Cannons 3, 10 innings

Mountain Home hosted the Centennial Cannons Friday night at Home and managed a 4-3 win in 10 innings.

Jake Hiler and Centennial's R.J. Rouse were hooked up in a great pitching duel. Both were rocked for three runs in the third inning, but then settled down to hold each other scoreless through nine. Centennial went with Oliver Johnson in the 10th inning, and Johnson, after getting the first two outs, walked the bases loaded.

Gabe Anderson's infield hit scored Cal Vivier with the winning run as the Royals pulled it out, 4-3.

"The conference this year is really a lot more competitive, and we've played some close ball games and we've been lucky enough to win a lot of those games," said Coach Cotton. "I can't be more proud of these guys! Jake Hiler -- I threw him a little longer than I wanted to. He battled and he was healthy tonight. He located and worked ahead in the count and kept his pitch count low for as long as he did throw, and just really battled. That is his best outing yet. He also carried us with his bat by hitting well at the plate, and Gabe Anderson came through with a huge hit there in the 10th inning. The guys did a great job and I'm very proud of them."

Jake Hiler and Chris Rau both had two hits for the Royals, Rau had two RBIs, Hiler two doubles. Jordan Cisna had an RBI-single, and Brock Morris and Joe Poseley also had hits. Jake Hiler went 10 innings and got the win, improving to 4-0. He had 11 strikeouts.

Royals 5, 16

Capitals 7, 10

The Royals had their six-game win streak snapped in the first game, as the Capitals won, 7-5, but Mountain Home battled back to win the second game, 16-10 Saturday afternoon at Capital High School.

The Royals' David Zito and Boise's Jeremy Powers were locked up in a great pitching duel in the first game. The Capitals got on the board first, scoring twice in the second inning, only one run earned.

Mountain Home finally got to Powers in the top of the fifth, getting four doubles to score three runs and take a 3-2 lead, but the Capitals took advantage of Mountain Home errors to score three unearned runs in the bottom half of the fifth. They added two more in the sixth to increase their lead to 7-3.

The Royals managed to score twice in the top of the seventh, but could get no more, falling short, 7-5.

"Offensively, we just didn't hit with runners in scoring position," said Coach Cotton in radio comments after the game. "Their guy on the mound, honestly -- what we've seen this week as far as pitching -- he's definitely just an average pitcher, and we didn't put the punishment on him when we had our chances. There was an inning when we did, and then at the end, we came on a little bit, but we only came on strong when we had to -- when our backs were against the wall. Like I said before, this week's been an awesome wake-up call for us. Our defense is what killed us. A team like this, they're smaller, but they're scrappy, they get their bunts down, they steal bases a lot. We've got to mix up our looks on the mound. When you can't get the small things done against a team like this, they're going to beat you, and that's what happened to us today."

Eric Christiansen and Cal Vivier both had three hits to lead the Royals in the first game. Vivier had two doubles, Christiansen had a double and an RBI. Jake Hiler, Chris Rau and Joe Poseley all had RBI-doubles. Shawn Lewis had a hit and RBI, and Gabe Anderson also had a hit. David Zito suffered his first loss of the season despite giving up just two earned runs. He is now 3-1 on the season, with two saves.

It looked like the Royals were going to 10-run the Capitals in the second game, as they built up an 11-0 lead, but Boise scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 11-4.

Mountain Home scored three in the top of the fifth to go back up by 10, but the Royals defense fell apart in the bottom of the fifth as Boise scored six runs to come within four, 14-10. The Royals scored two more in the sixth to make it a 16-10 final.

"We had a hard time throwing strikes later in the game," said Cotton after the game. "Eric (Christiansen) came out and threw very, very well for us. We might have pulled the trigger on him a little soon. I'm sure he could have bared down and thrown a little more, but Eric threw very, very well, and has for us all season, and his bat's been there, too. We had a good day at the plate. Joe Poseley had a huge day at the plate for us. He's really seeing the ball well!"

Joe Poseley had two doubles and a home run and drove in six runs in the second game. Ricky Baker and Steven Budine also had three hits, Baker drove in three runs, Budine, one. David Zito had two hits including a triple and drove in three runs. Jake Hiler had a double and RBI, Ricky Lee, Tom Hennessey and Eric Christiansen also had hits, and Chris Rau scored four runs. Eric Christiansen got the win to improve to 4-1, and Chris Rau picked up the save.

The Royals take a 19-6 overall record into the Pepsi Challenge Tournament that starts Thursday and runs through Sunday at Borah and Capital. The Royals open Thursday morning at 9 a.m. against the Boise Senators, and take on the Nampa Braves at 11:45 a.m., both games played at Borah's Wigle Field. Friday they move to Capital High and face the Centennial Cannons at 11:45 a.m. and the Eagle Vipers at 5:15 p.m. Saturday they play the Boise Seminole at 2:30 p.m. at Capital.Sunday will have the fifth-sixth place game at 9 a.m., the third-fourth place game at noon, and the championship game at 3 p.m.

"We're going to need all the pitching we can use," said Coach Cotton of the Pepsi Challenge Tournament that could see them play six games in four days. "Everybody we play, except for Eagle, we've played, so we know what we're up against, and, obviously, as we've seen this week these teams we've faced are good."

"I'm giving these guys four days off," said Cotton. "They're going to practice on their own and kind of get back in the groove themselves, but also kind of get a rest, because we've played a ton of baseball in one month, so they'll have four days off and then come back Thursday and hopefully get off to a right start against Borah and Nampa."