Royals at district tourney after winning regular season

The Mountain Home Royals opened the Area B Class A American Legion District Baseball Tournament at Timberline Park in Boise last night.

The Royals, who won both the Area B Class A Championship as well as the State Class A Championship last year, finished 13-3 in league play, and 29-8 overall.

They closed out their regular season schedule with a doubleheader sweep of Kuna at home last Wednesday.

Royals 7, 13

Kuna 6, 3

Joe Poseley's walk-off home run leading off the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Royals a 7-6 win over the Diamondbacks in the first game.

Mountain Home scored a run in the bottom of the first to lead 1-0. Kuna answered with an unearned run in the top of the second to tie it at 1-1, but the Royals added two more in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-1. The Royals added another run in the fourth to go up 4-1.

Kuna took advantage of Royal errors to score four times in the top of the fifth and go up 5-4, but back came the Royals in the bottom half of the inning to regain the lead 6-5.

Jake Hiler took over on the mound for Chris Rau in the sixth and gave up two walks, one of them scoring on a single, as the Diamondbacks tied the game in the sixth.

It stayed tied at 6-6 until Joe Poseley led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo home run over the left field fence to win the game, 7-6.

The Royals were out-hit in the game, 11-7, but took advantage of five walks and six hit batters along with their timely hits.

Ricky Lee, Brock Morris, Jake Hiler and Chris Rau all had hits and RBIs. Ricky Baker and Shawn Lewis also had hits, and Tom Hennessey had an RBI.

Chris Rau pitched the first five innings, giving up five runs, only one of which was earned. Jake Hiler pitched the final four innings and got the win, improving to 7-0 on the season.

In the second game, the Royals pounded seven Kuna pitchers for 13 runs on 13 hits, with Tom Hennessey's RBI double ending the game by the 10-run rule in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Gabe Anderson improved to 6-0, pitching five innings, giving up three unearned runs and two hits, striking out seven. Ricky Baker pitched a scoreless sixth inning.

Steven Budine had three hits to lead the Royals. Ricky Lee had two hits including a triple and scored three runs. Jordan Cisna had two hits and knocked in one run. Tom Hennessey, Shawn Lewis and Joe Poseley each had a hit and two RBIs, Jake Hiler and Chris Rau had hits and RBIs, and Gabe Anderson also had a hit.

Royals manager Travis DeVore was happy to get the sweep to close out the regular season.

"I'm really impressed with our pitching performances tonight. Every kid that threw, threw really well, even though the runs that they put up were unearned for the most part.

"Chris Rau threw a great game, and came out with the lead, and Jake (Hiler) finished up the first game, and that was a big conference win for us. Hopefully, it puts us up near the top of the conference standings going into district.

"Gabe (Anderson) and Ricky Baker threw great in the second game. Gabe was just mowing them down early on.

"Joe Poseley's walk-off home run, that's a huge moment, something he'll never forget, and most of us won't forget. Walk-off home runs are rare in baseball, so a lot of good moments tonight.

"The kids played well, but we need to play a little better if we want to get to state."

By finishing up their regular season schedule on July 18 that gave the Royals some needed time off before the district started on July 24. DeVore thinks that will help their pitching staff.

"I actually think it works to our advantage having that time off, because our pitching was pretty tired coming out of the Pepsi Tournament, and I've seen an improvement these last starts with the kids that have gotten to sit for five or six days without throwing and coming in a little more fresh.

"I'm confident in our pitching staff. I think we need to hit the ball a little bit better, and I know we can play better."

defense, but obviously, we're going to be one of the teams to beat going into that tournament."

The District Tournament runs through July 30.