Royals win two games over Boise and Nampa

The Mountain Home Royals bounced back into the win column last week, beating the Boise Barons and Nampa Christian.

Royals 3

Barons 1

In a bit of a strange game, the Royals manufactured three runs without the benefit of a hit to down the Boise Barons 3-1 last Monday night at home.

The Barons' Spencer Graves was the hard-luck loser, striking out 11 Royals batters while walking four and hitting two, but Mountain Home managed to score single runs in the first, third and sixth innings.

Alex Rodriguez picked up the win to improve to 2-1 on the season. He scattered three hits while striking out seven and walking three. He ran into some problems in the seventh, after two were out, when two batters reached on errors. He then walked the next two, walking in a run, but Trevor Woodruff came in and struck out the next batter to end the game and pick up the save.

"It was a little weird, getting no-hit and getting the 'w,' but we played defense for most of the game, and kind of had a letdown in the seventh inning," said Royals head baseball coach Mark Cotton.

"The thing that stands out the most to me today was Alex Rodriguez on the mound. He threw an absolute gem and is really starting to come into his own. Offensively we struggled today. We're going to have to patch that up before tomorrow. Hopefully we can come out a little more aggressive. I think we were a little passive at the plate today, but outside of that, we'll take the wins where we can get them!"

Mountain Home 16

Nampa Christian 1

The Royals closed out their week with a 16-1 win at Nampa Christian last Tuesday night.

An eight-run seventh inning put the game out of reach, as the Royals pounded out 13 hits, including two doubles and two home runs.

Tom Hennessey had a double and home run and drove in six runs. Kevin Anderson had two hits including a home run and had four RBIs. Skyler Podesik, Alex Rodriguez and Devan Wilkinson also had two hits, Podesik scored three runs and had two RBIs, Rodriguez had a double and an RBI. Ricky Lee had a hit and scored three runs, Trevor Woodruff had a double, and J.T. Cristobal also had a hit.

Woodruff went the distance for the win, his third in five decisions. He gave up just one hit while striking out 12 and walking three.

Coach Cotton was happy to see the bats come alive at Nampa Christian.

"Yeah, we got off to a slow start at the beginning of the game, but in the fourth inning, our bats started to finally come alive as we got a little more aggressive at the plate. Trevor Woodruff threw a great game for us, he threw a one-hitter -- that's his second one of the season -- he's been solid for us all year on the mound. We also had Tom Hennessey and Kevin Anderson hit their first home runs of the season, so we've got a lot of positives going into this long break that we're going to have."

Cotton indicated he would give his Royals some time off during the six-day layoff to get them ready for the final weeks of the regular season schedule when they have 13 games in 15 days.

"We're going to take a little vacation and let the guys kind of rejuvenate a little bit, and then come back Monday against Kuna and when we come back, we start hitting the games hard again as we get down to the final month of the season. Hopefully we can close out strong and finish strong and get some momentum going."

The win improved the Royals to 13-6 overall and 8-4 in league play. They returned to action on Monday, hosting Kuna for two games.

They were also at Capital High in Boise to face the Boise Capitals Tuesday night for a doubleheader. They are at Glenns Ferry for two on Thursday.