Royals rebound, win Rocky Mountain tourney

For the second straight week the Mountain Home Royals bounced back after dropping a tournament opening game and won four straight to win the title.

The latest was the Rocky Mountain Fathers Day Tournament at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian.

Rocky Mountain 2, Mountain Home 1

The Royals opened the Rocky Mountain Fathers Day Tournament with a tough 2-1 loss to the host Rocky Mountain Avalanche Friday morning at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian.

Mountain Home's Eric Christiansen and Rocky Mountain's Christian McConnell were involved in a pitching duel.

The Royals plated a run with three straight singles in the third inning to go up 1-0. The lead held until the sixth, when Rocky Mountain took advantage of a walk and two straight hits -- their only hits in the game -- to plate two runs in the inning to take the lead, 2-1.

Mountain Home outhit Rocky Mountain 9-2 and had the tying and go-ahead runners on in the top of the seventh, but failed to score, the Avalanche winning 2-1.

"We did not play well today at all," said Royals head coach Mark Cotton. "On the bases, it was a disaster, so we really need to re-evaluate what we're doing out here ... and come out for our next game with a lot more intensity and focus."

Trevor Woodruff and Gage Curtis both had two hits for the Royals. David Bitrick, Tom Hennessey, Skyler Podesek, Eric Christiansen and Jared Day also had hits. Podesek had an RBI.

Christiansen suffered the loss, despite giving up just two hits. He struck out eight batters, hit one and walked three.

Mountain Home 14, Owyhee Valley 0

The Royals bounced back from their morning loss with a 14-0 five-inning win over the Owyhee Valley Diamondbacks Friday afternoon.

Mountain Home coupled eight hits with four errors, three hit batters and four walks to put up 14 runs in four innings against the team based out of the Homedale area.

David Bitrick and Tom Hennessey both had three hits and three RBIs, Hennessey's RBI coming on a bases-clearing double. Eric Christiansen had an RBI triple and Jared Day had an RBI single.

Skyler Podesek, Alex Rodriguez, Trevor Woodruff, Ryan Goldsby and Austin Bodily also had RBI. Jared Day pitched a one-hit shutout, striking out eight batters to improve to 5-0 on the season.

"It was a big difference from the last game," said Coach Cotton after the game. "We were still a little tentative on the base paths, but outside of that, I'll take that approach to the game over our first game any day of the week."

Coach Cotton was impressed with both games that his pitchers threw Friday.

Allowing just three hits in two games is impressive, the coach added.

"Eric threw a great baseball game in the first game, and then Jared is really Mr. Consistent," the coach said. "He comes out and throws a ton of strikes. When you do that, you know your defense doesn't fall asleep and you give yourself a chance to win."

Royals 20, Gems 1

The Royals were expecting a tough battle from the Boise Gems, who were unbeaten in tournament play, but it was the Gems' fourth game of the tournament, and their pitching had trouble finding the plate. When they did, the Royals responded with timely hits and a 20-1 five-inning win.

A 12-run third inning, in which the Royals batted around twice, sending 18 batters to the plate, put the game away. The Royals had 16 hits and took advantage of 10 walks and four hit batters.

Skyler Podesek and Alex Rodriguez both had three hits and scored three runs. Rodriguez had three RBI and a double. Podesek also knocked in a run. David Bitrick, Jake Hennessey and Eric Christiansen each had two hits. Bitrick scored three runs and knocked in two runs. Christiansen had three RBIs and Jake Hennessey one. Tom Hennessey had a two-run double and Jared Day, Austin Bodily and Joe Gutierrez all had hits and RBIs.

Trevor Woodruff gave up just one hit while striking out six in three innings to get the win. Gage Curtis pitched the final two innings for the Royals.

Coach Cotton was happy to get the win, adding the score was not indicative of how good the Gems are.

"They're a great baseball team," he said. "In a tournament like this, when you play so many games in two days, you can run out of pitching real quick, and I think that's what happened to them."

Royals 10, Capitals 5

The fans got their money's worth in Saturday night's final game of the day in the tournament as the lead went back and forth before the Royals pulled away for a 10-5 win over the Boise Capitals.

The Capitals scored two runs in the top of the second but Mountain Home pushed across three runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 3-2.

Boise tied it at 3-3 with a run in the third, but a two-run fourth put the Royals up 5-3.

The Capitals tied it at 5-5 with two in the top of the fifth, but Mountain Home regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Mountain Home added three more runs in the sixth to make it 10-5, and held off the Capitals in the seventh for the win.

"It was a fun game to be a part of, a lot of back-and-forth," said Coach Cotton. "Their guy on the bump kind of held us there for a while, and then we started getting some hits.

"One through nine in the lineup I thought we had some great at-bats.

"Defensively, we had a couple of errors, but as far as bringing intensity to the game and hitting the ball, I thought this was probably one of our better outings."

Tom Hennessey and Trevor Woodruff both had two hits. Hennessey had two RBIs. Woodruff had a triple and drove in three runs. David Bitrick, Eric Christiansen, Alex Rodriguez and Austin Bodily also had hits. Bodily had an RBI.

Alex Rodriguez went the distance for the win. He gave up eight hits but struck out 10 batters to improve to 4-0 on the season.

"I had great defense behind me," said a tired but happy Alex Rodriguez after the game. "Tom (Hennessey) had a great grab of a line drive and another great play, and I can't thank my defense enough, and the offense got us going, too. Our bats and the defense, I can't thank them enough."

Royals 6, Gems 2

Mountain Home and the Boise Gems both went through two days of pool play in the tournament with 3-1 records, so they met Sunday for the championship.

A five-run first inning was more than enough for the Royals, who beat the Gems 6-2 for the title.

"Sometimes it's a little frustrating when we score five runs early and then sort of ease up. After that, I don't think we had the same drive we had in the first inning," said Coach Cotton. "The first inning all the energy was up in the dugout, and then we just kind of fell flat, but we played great defense, still hit the ball hard, and got an awesome outing out of Trevor, so all around I think we've really grown as a team this past week."

Jake Hennessey had two hits, including a double, and knocked in two runs. Alex Rodriguez also had two hits. Trevor Woodruff had a two-run home run, Tom Hennessey had a triple and scored two runs, Eric Christiansen had an RBI double and David Bitrick also had a hit.

Trevor Woodruff went the distance for the win, striking out eight and scattering five hits. He improved to 3-1 on the season.

The Royals headed into this week 17-2 on the season and were at Mountain View for a league doubleheader with the Toros Tuesday night. They host the Buhl Tribe for a non-league doubleheader this evening, June 23, starting at 6 p.m.