Royals win three American Legion baseball games

The Mountain Home Royals picked up three wins last week out of four games played in American Legion baseball.

Royals 7, 7

Seminoles 5, 9

The Royals managed a split with the Boise Seminoles last Wednesday night at Fort Boise, winning the first game, 7-5, and dropping the nightcap, 9-7.

Mountain Home has 18 players listed on its roster, but due to football camps, vacations and other activities, the Royals had just 10 players for the first game against the Seminoles, and nine for the second game.

Eric Christiansen battled control problems in the first game, giving up two runs in the first without a hit, but a five-run second inning gave the Royals the lead, and they held on for a 7-5 win.

Christiansen struck out 10 batters in five innings of work, but also walked nine. He did get the win to improve to 3-0. Devan Wilkinson pitched the last two innings to get the save, striking out three.

The Royals out-hit Boise 11-3 in the first game, with Ricky Lee getting three hits, scoring two runs and knocking in a run. David Bitrick had two hits including a triple and drove in a run. Ronnie Young's first hit of the season was a triple, and Skyler Podesik had a double and an RBI. Ricky Baker and Eric Christiansen both had hits and RBIs, and Devan Wilkinson and Jared Day also had hits.

Mountain Home jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning of the second game, but the Seminoles took advantage of errors to plate seven runs in the second inning to go up 7-6. The Royals tied it up at 7-7 in the top of the third, but Boise regained the lead, 8-7, in the bottom of the inning, and added another run in the sixth to make it a 9-7 final.

The Royals again out-hit the Seminoles, this time, 11-8, but four errors helped open the flood gates to eight unearned runs.

Alex Rodriguez, Eric Christiansen and Ronnie Young each had two hits and an RBI, Rodriguez had a triple, and Christiansen had two doubles. Jared Day had a double, and Ricky Lee, Skyler Podesik, Austin Bodily and Devan Wilkinson also had hits.

Rodriguez suffered the loss, giving up eight runs in five innings, but just one of the runs earned, striking out seven and walking five.

Jared Day struck out two in one inning of work.

Royals head coach Mark Cotton saw some definite areas they need to work on to get better.

"We jumped out both games and kind of let them back in it. We struggled on the mound today, which we haven't had that problem very much this year, and when you aren't pitching it, and you aren't playing defense, you better pick it up with the bats, and we did in the first game, and we got the 'w', and in the second game that's kind of what came back to haunt us -- the errors and leaving people on base. It's not the end of the world, but I think we saw some holes in our game we need to patch up."

Royals 19, 10

Senators 2, 0

The Royals hosted the Boise Senators Saturday at home, and came away with a sweep, 19-2 and 10-0.

Mountain Home sent 12 batters to the plate in the first inning in the first game, and scored eight runs. After scoring two in the second inning, they added nine more runs in the third to put the game out of reach.

Eric Christiansen pitched four innings and got the win to improve to 4-0. He struck out six and walked four, but all four walks were in the first inning when the Senators scored their two runs.

Christiansen also had three hits at the plate and drove in three runs. Ricky Lee, Skyler Podesik and Brock Morris each had two hits, Lee scored three runs and had an RBI, Podesik had two doubles and two RBIs, and Morris also knocked in a run. Jared Day, Ronnie Young and David Bitrick also had hits. Day had three RBIs, Young, a double and two RBIs, and Bitrick scored three runs and also knocked in a run.

In the second game, Mountain Home took advantage of four Boise errors in the first inning to score five runs. They added a single run in the fourth, three in the fifth, and ended the game with a run in the sixth.

Devan Wilkinson picked up his first win of the season, striking out seven in five innings and giving up just three hits. Jared Day had two strikeouts in a scoreless sixth inning. Day was big at the plate, getting three hits and driving in a run. Ronnie Young and David Bitrick both had two hits, Young drove in three runs, Bitrick, one. Skyler Podesik had an RBI double, Austin Bodily had a hit and two RBIs, and Devan Wilkinson also had a hit.

Coach Cotton was pleased with the sweep of the Senators.

"The sticks finally came alive and we strung a bunch of hits together today. A lot of the young guys got in there and proved what they could do. Skyler Podesik hit the ball great all weekend, and Thursday as well, and Ronnie Young came up big for us, and those are guys I haven't seen a lot of and it was good to see them step up and prove themselves."

The Royals improved to 5-1 in league play and 9-2 overall with the sweep of the Senators, both games counting in league play.

Mountain Home was home for a single game with the Centennial Cannons last night and hosts Mountain View Thursday for a pair of league games starting at 5 p.m. The Royals are at Timberline Friday night for a 7 p.m. league game with the Boise Gems.