Royals stumble, winning only two of six games

The Mountain Home Royals found the going tough last week, playing six games in four days and winning just two of the six.

Cannons 8

Royals 6

Errors did the Royals in when they hosted the Centennial Cannons in a single game at Eastside Park, losing 8-6 last Tuesday night. All eight of the runs scored by the Cannons were unearned.

Mountain Home plated a run in the first, but Centennial scored two in the second and three in the third. The Royals tied the game at 5-5, with four runs in the third, and went ahead, 6-5, in the fourth, but the Cannons pushed across two runs in the fifth to take the lead for good and added another run in the sixth to make it an 8-6 final.

"They came out more intense than us from the first inning on, and they made things happen, and we let them make things happen," said Royals head baseball coach Mark Cotton after the game.

"When you walk that many guys, and you can't play defense, you're asking for trouble, and I think the stat that really shows it is they had eight runs on three hits, and we ended up double digits in the hits column and we lose the baseball game.

"We were exposed today -- they exposed a lot of our weaknesses -- and we've got a lot of work to do, all the way around."

Trevor Woodruff, pitching in less than 24 hours since returning from a Tiger football camp at UNLV in Las Vegas, suffered his first loss, giving up seven unearned runs in five innings of work. He struck out four, hit one and walked five batters. Alex Rodriguez pitched the final two innings, giving up one unearned run.

Woodruff had a good night at the plate, with three hits and two RBIs. Brock Morris had two hits and drove in a run, Eric Christiansen had a two-run double, and Skyler Podesik, Tom Hennessey, David Bitrick and J.T. Cristobal also had hits.

Royals 4, 10

Kuna 11, 5

The Royals went to Kuna last Wednesday for a non-conference doubleheader and came away with a split, losing to the Diamondbacks 11-4 in the first game, but taking the five-inning second game 10-5.

Kuna jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first game after an inning, and a three-run third inning made it 7-2, Kuna. The Diamondbacks had a three-run sixth that put the game out of reach, 11-4.

Trevor Woodruff and Skyler Podesik both had two hits including a double and an RBI, Podesik hit a home run. Eric Christiansen, Kevin Anderson, Jake Hennessey and Alex Rodriguez also had hits. Rodriguez's hit was a double.

Tom Hennessey suffered the loss, giving up seven runs in three innings. Alex Rodriguez yielded four runs in two innings, and Jared Day pitched a scoreless inning.

The Royals got a complete game from Devan Wilkinson in the second game, which went only five innings because of darkness.

Wilkinson improved to 2-0 on the season. Eric Christiansen had a double and home run and drove in three runs in the second game.

Jake Hennessey and Brock Morris both had two hits, Hennessey had a double and RBI, Skyler Podesik had a double and two RBIs, and Ronnie Young had a double and RBI.

"We showed how bad we could be in the first game," said Coach Cotton. "We committed a lot of errors -- mental as well as physical -- and we showed how good we could be in the second game. Our approaches at the plate weren't very good in the first game, and the second game we came out and were aggressive early in the count, and it was two different baseball games for sure."

Royals 17, 2

Toros 9, 10

The Royals hosted Mountain View for a conference doubleheader last Thursday, and came away with a split, winning the first game 17-9, and dropping the nightcap 10-2.

Mountain Home took advantage of the Toros pitchers' wildness in the first game, and combined their 13 hits with 10 walks and five hit batters to score 17 runs to easily win 17-9.

Trevor Woodruff, Jake Hennessey and David Bitrick all had two hits in the first game, Woodruff knocked in three runs, Jake Hennessey, two. Brock Morris, Eric Christiansen, Tom Hennessey, Alex Rodriguez, Jared Day, J.T. Cristobal and Skyler Podesik all had hits, Morris, Christiansen and Hennessey all had two RBIs, Rodriguez, Day, and Cristobal also had hits.

Christiansen pitched into the fifth inning to improve to 5-0, Jared Day closed out the game to get the save.

The Royals managed just six hits in the second game, and six walks and four hit batters along with some costly errors helped Mountain View score 10 runs, as the Toros won, 10-2.

Tom Hennessey had two hits for the Royals in the second game, Trevor Woodruff had a double, Brock Morris, Jared Day and David Bitrick also had hits, and Jake Hennessey had an RBI. J.T. Cristobal picked up the loss, giving up eight runs -- just one earned -- in four innings.

"The first game, they (Mountain View) scrapped -- they were a tough team -- they kept finding ways to get back in the game, and our pitching staff did a pretty good job," said Coach Cotton. "Eric (Christiansen) worked out of some things early, and as the game went on, Jared Day came on and threw really well to close out the game.

"He was exactly what we needed -- a guy to come in and throw strikes and work ahead in the count. Offensively, we're getting there, especially in the first game we had some guys really step up. David Bitrick has been huge at the plate, and he played a great outfield today with Ricky Lee being gone.

"The only thing that concerns me is in the second game, the guy throws a little bit harder, and he was throwing mostly fastballs, and we weren't competing, so we've got some work to do. We're making strides in certain areas, so we'll get there!"

Gems 6

Royals 5

(9 innings)

Mountain Home let one get away from them Friday night at Timberline Park in Boise, when they lost to the Boise Gems, 6-5, in nine innings.

The Royals used some Boise errors and six hits in the second inning to score three runs to take a 3-0 lead over the just once-beaten Gems. The Gems got a run back in the bottom of the third, but Mountain Home answered with a run in the fourth to lead 4-1.

It stayed 4-1 until the bottom of the seventh, when the Gems got to Royals pitcher Trevor Woodruff for three runs to tie the game at 4-4, and force extra innings.

Skyler Podesik's sacrifice fly scored David Bitrick in the top of the ninth to put the Royals up 5-4.

After Cody Price reached on an error to start the Gems' ninth, Derek Thompson tripled in Price with the tying run with no one out.

Trevor Woodruff got a pop-up and a ground-out to get two outs, Thompson remaining at third base, but Ryan Johnson came through with a base hit to right to bring in Thompson with the winning run.

Despite the loss, Coach Cotton thought his team showed they could play with them.

"Yeah, they're a great team -- they only have one loss on the season, but honestly I thought we had control of the game through the entire game, we just had some unfortunate things happen.

"When you look at a one-run game like this, there are a lot of things to think about. We made numerous base-running mistakes, and we made an error in that inning, too, so we totally let them in the baseball game. I'm really proud of these guys. I thought we made a bunch of strides today at the plate, defensively, mentality-wise, guys were hustling around, doing things right.

"Trevor threw an absolute gem, and Skyler Podesik gets the sacrifice fly to put us up in the top of the ninth. There's a lot of battles that we won today, and hopefully, we can use this as positive momentum and don't dwell on the loss, even though it's hard to do with a one-run loss."

Skyler Podesik, J.T. Cristobal, Eric Christiansen and Trevor Woodruff each had two hits in the game, Podesik had a double and RBI, Cristobal scored two runs and drove in another. Brock Morris, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Anderson and David Bitrick also had hits. Woodruff fell to 2-2 on the season, despite giving up just two earned run while striking out 10.

The loss dropped the Royals to 11-6 overall, and 6-4 in league play.

They hosted the Boise Barons Monday night, and were on the road to Nampa Christian on Tuesday night. They host Kuna for two games on June 29, and have a doubleheader at Capital on June 30.