Royals split weeks games, sweep Glenns Ferry

The Mountain Home Royals ended their week 3-3 after playing three doubleheaders and coming away with a split, getting swept, and a sweep.

Royals 4, 7

Kuna 15, 4

The Royals battled back to take the nightcap and gain a split with the Kuna Diamondbacks on June 29 at Mountain Home.

After Kuna scored two in the top of the second inning of the first game, the Royals came back with three in the bottom half to take a 3-2 lead.

The Diamondbacks regained the lead in the fourth, scoring three runs to go up 5-3. Mountain Home got one run back in the bottom of the inning to close to within one, 5-4, but Kuna scored five runs in both the sixth and seventh to pull away for a 15-4 win.

Mountain Home managed only five hits in the game, two each by Ricky Lee and J.T. Cristobal, Lee knocked in two runs and Cristobal had a double and one RBI. Brock Morris had the only other hit.

Alex Rodriguez suffered the loss to drop to 2-2 on the season. Rodriguez struck out 10 batters but he and Devan Wilkinson got racked for 14 hits, including five doubles and four triples.

Sloppy fielding helped Kuna go out to a 4-0 lead, but Jared Day settled down and held the Diamondbacks scoreless the rest of the way. The Royals scored two runs each in the second, fourth and fifth innings, and added a single run in the sixth for a 7-4 win.

Ricky Lee had three hits and drove in three runs, and Tom Hennessey had two hits, including a triple, and also drove in three runs. Skyler Podesik, Eric Christiansen and Alex Rodriguez also had hits. Jared Day got his first start and scattered five hits while striking out seven to get the complete game win.

"The first game, it seemed like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, defensively and offensively," said Royals head coach Mark Cotton after the split.

"He (Kuna pitcher Alex Bunn) definitely was a hittable pitcher on the mound, but we just couldn't get anything going, and when we did hit the ball, we hit it right at them. The thing that kind of scared me was the amount of errors that we made -- one after another. Hopefully we can get better.

"I definitely haven't made some good calls the past couple games, and there's things that I need to change in my game as well, so we'll see what happens as the season goes on, but I think, hopefully, with the second game (win), maybe that momentum will take us somewhere."

The first game of the doubleheader was the conference game, so the Royals dropped to 8-5 in league play and the split put them at 14-7 overall.

Capitals 5, 10

Royals 3, 6

It was a rough night for Mountain Home starting pitchers last Tuesday night at Capital High School, as the Royals dropped two league games to the Boise Capitals, 5-3 and 10-6.

In the first game, Royals starter Eric Christiansen was able to get out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning without a run, but the Capitals roughed him for four runs in the second inning to take a 4-0 lead. J.T. Cristobal had a stellar relief effort, surrendering just one run in five innings of work.

Meanwhile Capitals starter Mike Wickham limited Mountain Home to just three hits in six innings of work. The Royals did manage to score three runs off reliever Jacob Cluff in the seventh, and had the tying runs on base, but fell short, losing the first game 5-3.

Jake Hennessey had two hits, J.T. Cristobal had a two-run single, Ricky Lee had a single and an RBI, and Brock Morris and John McCabe also had hits, McCabe, a double.

Eric Christiansen suffered the loss, his first in six decisions.

In the second game, Ricky Lee led off the first inning with a triple, and scored on Jake Hennessey's ground-out to give the Royals a brief 1-0 lead, but in the bottom of the inning, after Royals starter Tom Hennessey got the first batter out, five hits, two walks and a hit batter produced seven Boise runs before John McCabe came in and got the final two outs to end the inning.

The Royals managed single runs in the first three innings, and two more in the fifth to come back within three, 8-5, but could get no closer, losing the nightcap 10-6.

Eric Christiansen and Alex Rodriguez both had two hits for Mountain Home in the second game. Christiansen scored twice and had a double and Rodriguez had two RBIs. Ricky Lee, Brock Morris, Skyler Podesik and John McCabe all had hits, Morris had an RBI, and Tom Hennessey and Jake Hennessey both had RBIs.

With both games being conference games, the Royals fell to 8-7 in league and 14-9 overall.

Royals 7, 4

Pirates 4, 0

The Royals got a two-hit shutout from Eric Christiansen in the second game to come away with a sweep of the Glenns Ferry Pirates last Thursday in Glenns Ferry.

Mountain Home scored two runs in the first inning of the first game, and added single runs in the third and fourth to go up 4-1, a lead they had heading into the Glenns Ferry sixth.

Alex Rodriguez had scattered four hits through five, and had two out with two on in the sixth, when Rory Hance came through with a two-run single to make it 4-3. Jared Day came on to relieve Rodriguez and Gabe Arevalo singled in the tying run before Day struck out the next batter to end the inning.

Mountain Home took advantage of a couple errors and timely hitting to score three runs in the top of the seventh to lead 7-4.

A hit batter and two seeing-eye singles loaded the bases for Glenns Ferry in the bottom of the seventh, but Jared Day then got a strikeout, a fly-out and another strikeout to end the threat as the Royals won 7-4.

"Their guy on the bump (Adrian Martinez) was really solid and kept our guys off balance all game," said Coach Cotton after the game. "We obviously let them back in it with a couple errors, but the main thing to focus on right there is in the seventh inning, when we had to get runs when the game was tied, our guys stepped up and hit the ball really well.

"Obviously, Jared Day, we put him in a really tough situation, he's a young guy, and it's always neat to see how they're going to respond to things like that, and Jared was 0-2 on almost every batter, working ahead, and he did a phenomenal job for us. There's a lot of things positive to focus on."

Eric Christiansen and Skyler Podesik both had three hits in the first game. Christiansen scored two runs and knocked in two runs and Podesik had a double and an RBI. Ricky Lee, Brock Morris and J.T. Cristobal also had hits. Lee scored three runs, and Morris had a double and RBI.

Jared Day picked up the win in relief of Alex Rodriguez to improve to 2-0 on the season.

In the second game, Eric Christiansen broke out a bit of a pitching funk, scattering two hits while striking out 11 to pick up his sixth win in seven decisions.

Christiansen helped himself out with an RBI single. Jake Hennessey had two hits and Ricky Lee, Tom Hennessey, Alex Rodriguez and Kevin Anderson also had hits. Anderson had an RBI.

"It was nice to see Eric come back and pitch like that," said Coach Cotton. "He's been struggling with his control lately, but he was on his game tonight."

The Royals improved to 9-7 in league play, and 16-9, overall.

They traveled to Buhl Monday night for a non-league doubleheader with the Buhl Tribe. They are home against the Boise Gems for a single game Thursday night at 7 p.m., and play their final home game of the season Friday night at 6 p.m. against Nampa Christian. They are on the road to Centennial on July 13 and close out their regular season schedule with a doubleheader at Kuna on July 14.