Royals sweep Mtn View, split wins against Buhl

The Mountain Home Royals came away with three more wins last week, sweeping the Mountain View Toros at Mountain View and splitting with the Buhl Tribe in Mountain Home.

Royals 13, Toros 2

Royals 10, Toros 0

The Mountain Home Royals kept their American Legion baseball league record unblemished, sweeping two from the Mountain View Toros Tuesday at Mountain View in Meridian.

The Royals took a 4-2 lead into the sixth inning of the first game and sent 11 batters to the plate, scoring seven runs to put the game out of reach. They added two more runs in the seventh for a 13-2 win.

Ryan Goldsby, David Bitrick, Eric Christiansen, Alex Rodriguez and Jesse Rodriguez each had two hits in the win. Goldsby had two RBIs and Jesse Rodriguez and Eric Christiansen each had one.

Jake Hennessey, Trevor Woodruff, Skyler Podesek and Tom Hennessey also had hits. Jake knocked in two runs with a double. Podesek and Woodruff also knocked in runs with doubles. Eric Christiansen improved to 2-1 on the season, limiting the Toros to just two hits while striking out 11 in going the distance for the win.

The sixth inning proved to be the big inning in the second game as well, as the Royals scored five on their way to a 10-0 win.

Jake Hennessey, Trevor Woodruff, Skyler Podesek and Tom Hennessey all had two hits in the game. Jake Hennessey had three RBIs, Woodruff and Podesek both had doubles, Woodruff scored three runs and Podesek two. Alex Rodriguez had an RBI-triple, Joe Gutierrez had an RBI-double, David Bitrick had a two-run single, Jared Day had an RBI-single and Eric Christiansen had a double.

Tom Hennessey went the distance, scattering four hits and striking out four in improving to 3-0 on the season.

"We started out kind of flat and in both games ended up scoring most of our runs in the sixth inning, so six seemed to be the magic number tonight," said Royals assistant coach Brett Young after the sweep.

Royals 5, Tribe 3

Royals 3, Tribe 9

The Royals hosted the Buhl Tribe for two non-league games last Wednesday night in Mountain Home and managed a split, winning the first game 5-3 and dropping the nightcap 3-9.

Jared Day pitched a complete game for the win in the first game, improving to 6-0 on the season. He allowed just five hits and struck out five.

Mountain Home had just six hits in the opener, but made them count. Tom Hennessey and Skyler Podesek both had two hits. Hennessey drove in two runs and Podesek scored two. Trevor Woodruff had a hit and knocked in three runs, and Eric Christiansen had a double.

Marco Avilar knocked in three runs with a bases-clearing triple in the second when Buhl scored four runs to go up 5-0. The Royals scored three in the third inning to come within two, 5-3, but could get no closer, the Tribe pulling away for a 9-3 win in the nightcap.

Mountain Home had just five hits in the ball game, two by Skyler Quintal, who had an RBI. Skyler Podesek, Tom Hennessey and Alex Rodriguez also had hits. Austin Bodily and Ronnie Young also had RBIs.

Alex Rodriguez suffered the loss, his first in five decisions.

"We didn't put our best thing out the whole time," said Royals assistant coach Brett Young after the split. "We wanted to make sure we got some younger guys some playing time for non-conference games, but they still scored more runs than they should have and we didn't score as many as we should have."

The split put the Royals at 19-3 on the season. They return to action this Friday when they travel to Timberline Park in Boise for a league doubleheader against the Boise Gems.

"Hopefully, the time off will make them a little bit hungrier to play baseball and we won't have another loss," said Coach Young.

"We've beaten Timberline (Boise Gems) twice and they're basically our rivals, so anytime that we can play them we want to make sure we're hungry and we want to play hard and step it up another notch."