Royals end regular season on five-game streak

The Mountain Home Royals started their busy week off with a loss, but ended the week on a five-game win streak as they closed out their regular season schedule.

Centennial 7

Royals 4

A five-run fifth inning for the Cannons helped Centennial to a 7-4 American Legion baseball win over the Royals last Monday night at Centennial High School in Meridian.

Cannons pitcher DJ Kisman had trouble finding the plate in the first inning, walking four Royals batters, and giving up a hit while another Royals batter reached on an error, but Mountain Home could only score two runs in the inning.

Centennial scored single runs in the second and third innings, and got to Royals starter Tom Hennessey for five runs in the fifth inning to shoot out to a 7-2 lead.

The Royals, who had just three hits on the night, managed just single runs in the sixth and seventh to make it a 7-4 final.

"I tell you," Royals head coach Matt Bundy said with a chuckle after the game, "some of our guys are hitting the ball right at guys, some of them are popping up. Chris Rau had one in the gap, if it's a little bit farther to left, it's over the fence. Ricky Baker hits a foul ball 10 feet off the fence. A little to the right, that's a home run. Some of our guys are hitting the ball hard, some of them aren't. We're going to meet a little early tomorrow and do a little batting practice!"

Chris Rau had an RBI double, Eric Christiansen an RBI single and Tom Hennessey had the only other Mountain Home hit. The loss was Hennessey's first in four decisions.

Royals 5, 2

Buhl, 1, 7

The Royals came away from Buhl last Tuesday night with a split with the Buhl Tribe in non-conference action. Mountain Home won the first game 5-1, and dropped the second 7-2.

Jordan Cisna improved to 3-0 on the season, throwing four innings for the win in the first game. Gabe Anderson threw three scoreless innings to earn the save. Alex Hoffman had two hits, including a double, and knocked in one run. Ricky Lee also had a double and RBI, David Bitrick had a hit and RBI. Tom Hennessey had a hit and Chris Rau had an RBI.

A five-run fifth for the Tribe in the second game broke open a 1-1 ball game, as Buhl took the nightcap 7-2.

Ricky Lee, Brock Morris, Alex Hoffman and Jordan Cisna all had doubles in the second game. Chris Rau and Tom Hennessey also had hits.

Trevor Woodruff suffered the loss, despite giving up just three hits in four-plus innings of work. He walked five, hit two and struck out three. Ricky Baker came on in relief in the fifth inning and closed out the game.

"Our first game was really good," said Coach Bundy after the Buhl split. "Our second game was decent -- we hit the ball hard, but right at them -- it was one of those games where we're continuing back that path of improvement, and I think we're in good shape coming into the next few games."

Royals 12

Barons 0

The Royals got both good hitting and great pitching Wednesday night as they downed the Boise Barons 12-0 in five innings in Mountain Home.

"We hit the ball well, and I really think we've really kind of jumped that bridge and I think we're in good shape now, and our hitting's back, and we've put a couple double-digit hits on the board again, and I'm happy with the way the guys are playing," said Coach Bundy after the game.

Jake Hiler and Jordan Cisna both had two hits and an RBI in the 11-hit attack, Hiler had a double. Tom Hennessey had a three-run triple, Cal Vivier had an RBI triple, Chris Rau had a double and RBI, Zane Bundy had a hit and two RBIs, Ricky Lee and Alex Hoffman had hits and RBIs and Gabe Anderson also had a hit.

Chris Rau struck out six and limited the Barons to just three hits, improving to 8-0 on the season.

Royals 9, 11

Mudcats 3, 1

The Royals used big innings in both games to pull away for a doubleheader sweep of the Columbia Mudcats last Friday at Columbia High School in Nampa, winning the first game 9-3 and the second game 11-1.

Both teams scored a run in the second inning of the first game. The Royals added single runs in the fourth and sixth to go up, 3-1, but Columbia tied it up with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Mountain Home erupted for six runs on five hits in the top of the seventh to win the first game 9-3.

"We got the bat on the ball pretty well there in the fifth or sixth inning, and were getting a lot of guys on base, and then finally in the seventh inning we scored six runs, which we needed to do that a little bit earlier to give us a cushion," said Coach Bundy.

"Gabe threw a really nice game and Jordan Cisna came up with a really big hit in the seventh to push a couple runs across. It was a good game."

Jordan Cisna and Alex Hoffman both had three hits for the Royals, out of 15 total hits for the team on the day. Cisna doubled in two runs in the seventh to give the Royals the lead for good. He ended the game with three RBIs.

"The day off (between games) was a good break. We came back hitting and had a good game today," said Jordan Cisna after the game.

Ricky Baker, Brock Morris and Chris Rau each had two hits, Baker had a double and two RBIs, Morris a double and RBI. Jake Hiler had a triple, Ricky Lee had a double and RBI, and Cal Vivier also had a hit.

Gabe Anderson went the distance for the win, snapping a two-game losing skid to improve to 4-2 on the season.

"It feels good to get back into the win column after those couple losses," said Anderson. "My arm wasn't a 100 percent, but I knew location would do it all."

The Royals only had six hits in the second game, but got three of them in the fifth inning and combined them with three hit batters, two walks and three errors to score nine runs to go up 11-0.

The Mudcats managed an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth off Eric Christiansen, who didn't give up a hit until the fifth inning. He pitched a two-hitter and struck out 10.

"I just tried to hang in there as long as I could. My arm was bothering me a little bit, but I did what I could," said Christiansen, who improved to 7-0 with the win.

David Bitrick and Jake Hiler both had two hits, Bitrick knocked in two runs, Hiler one. Cal Vivier and Brock Morris both had hits and RBIs, and Jordan Cisna and Shawn Lewis also knocked in runs.

Royals 10, 12

Pirates 0, 2

Mountain Home closed out their regular season schedule Saturday at home with a doubleheader sweep of the Glenns Ferry Pirates, 10-0 and 12-2.

The Royals scored three runs in the first inning in the first game against Glenns Ferry, added five more in the fourth and ended it with two more in the fifth, 10-0.

Alex Hoffman and Jake Hiler both had two hits. Hiler had two RBIs, Hoffman one. Zane Bundy had a three-run double, Gabe Anderson had an RBI single, Chris Rau had a double and Cal Vivier had a hit and scored three runs.

Jake Hiler snapped a three-game losing skid, striking out eight and giving up just two hits to improve to 4-3 on the season.

In the second game, the Royal broke open a close game with seven runs in the sixth, when three Pirate pitchers failed to get an out, as the Royals won 12-2.

Jordan Cisna and Tom Hennessey both had two hits in the second game, Cisna had two doubles and two RBIs, Hennessey had a double and scored three runs. David Bitrick and Trevor Woodruff both had two-run singles, Brock Morris had an RBI triple, Alex Hoffman had an RBI single, Jake Hiler also had a hit and Ricky Baker had an RBI. Jordan Cisna went five innings, giving up just one run and two hits, striking out seven to improve to 4-0. Chris Rau closed the game out, pitching the sixth.

"Tonight was a good job," said Coach Bundy after the Glenns Ferry sweep. "Jake threw a really good game in the first game... and we had some big hits, some bases-clearing hits. It was a lot of fun to see our intensity level stay up and see the guys have fun playing baseball."

The Royals finished the regular season 15-3 in league play, best in Area B, and 32-7 overall. They opened the Area B Class A District Tournament Tuesday morning against the Caldwell Bobcats.

Coach Bundy was optimistic going into the district tourney.

"We're right where we want to be. It should be fun. We'll come out and open up with Chris (Rau) early and get a game under our belts and we've got to come out and play baseball and win it of course, but it's nice to come in as the top seed."

The district tourney runs through Monday, July 28. The state tourney is Aug. 1-5 at Timberline Park in Boise.