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Royals close out regular season with 5 more wins
The Mountain Home Royals picked up five wins in six games last week as they closed out their regular season American Legion baseball schedule.
Centennial 15, Royals 10
Royals 19, Centennial 12
In a pair of scores that looked more like football tallies, the Royals salvaged a split with the Centennial Cannons Tuesday night at home, losing the first game, 15-10, but battled from behind in the nightcap to win 19-12.
In the first game, Mountain Home had trouble fielding and catching the ball early, and found themselves down 9-0 after three innings. They eventually battled back to tie the game at 9-9 and force extra innings, but the Cannons struck for six runs in the top of the eighth, while Mountain Home could only manage one, the result a 15-10 loss to the Cannons.
The Royals outhit Centennial 16-14, led by Trevor Woodruff's three hits. Skyler Podesek, Tom Hennessey, Skyler Quintal and Joe Gutierrez each had two hits. Hennessey, Quintal and Gutierrez each had doubles and Gutierrez drove in two runs while Hennessey had one RBI.
David Bitrick, Alex Rodriguez, Gage Curtis, Anthony Castillo and Ronnie Young also had hits. Bitrick and Young both had two RBIs and Curtis one. The third of three Royals pitchers, Curtis suffered the loss.
The second game started out a lot like the first, with errors helping the Cannons score eight runs in the first. The Royals got three runs in the bottom of the inning but Centennial added three in the second to go up 11-3.
Mountain Home put up four runs in the third, and added three more in the fifth to pull within one, 11-10, and, after Centennial added a run in the top of the sixth to make it 12-10, the Royals sent 15 batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth, scoring nine runs to take the lead 19-12.
Alex Rodriguez, who went the distance for the win, struck out the side in the seventh as the Royals won 19-12.
The Royals pounded out 20 hits in the game, led by Skyler Podesek who had four, two of them doubles. Podesek scored three runs and knocked in three. Tom Hennessey, Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Castillo each had three hits and two RBIs. Hennessey and Castillo both had doubles. David Bitrick and Ronnie Young both had two hits. Young had two RBIs, a double and a triple, and Bitrick had a double. Trevor Woodruff had a triple and two RBIs, David Bitrick and Jesse Rodriguez both had doubles and Jared Day had a hit and two RBIs.
Alex Rodriguez had 10 strikeouts in the win, improving to 6-2 on the season.
"Our pitching staff didn't come out with their best stuff early," said Royals head coach Mark Cotton. "Alex struggled early in the second game, but really settled down in the last five innings."
Royals 13, Senators 2
Royals 7, Senators 5
Mountain Home traveled to Borah's Wigle Field last Wednesday night and came away with a league doubleheader sweep of the Boise Senators, winning the first game 13-7 and the nightcap 7-5.
In the first game, the Royals had three four-run innings -- the first, the fifth and the seventh -- as they kept the Senators at bay, winning 13-2.
David Bitrick led a 12-hit attack with four hits, including a triple, and scored three runs. Trevor Woodruff, Skyler Podesek and Alex Rodriguez each had two hits including doubles.
Meanwhile, Woodruff and Podesek both had two RBIs. Podesek scored three runs and Rodriguez had an RBI. Tom Hennessey and Anthony Castillo also had hits. Hennessey scored three runs and drove in two. Castillo had a double and an RBI. Joe Gutierrez and Austin Bodily also had RBIs.
Jared Day, pitching into the fifth inning, picked up the win to improve to 8-1. Jesse Rodriguez pitched two and two-thirds innings of scoreless relief to get his second save of the season.
In the second game, a four-run fifth broke open a 3-3 game as Mountain Home took a 7-3 lead. The Senators scored single runs in the sixth and seventh and had the potential winning run at the plate when Skyler Quintal came on in relief to strike out the final two batters to preserve a 7-5 win.
Trevor Woodruff and Skyler Podesek both had two hits. Woodruff had a triple, a double, drove in a run and had an RBI.
David Bitrick, Gage Curtis, Jesse Rodriguez, Skyler Quintal, Alex Rodriguez and Joe Gutierrez all had hits. Bitrick had a triple and RBI, Jesse Rodriguez and Curtis had RBIs, and Quintal had a double and knocked in two runs.
Quintal's save was his second. Anthony Castillo improved to 3-0 with the win.
"I thought we played a lot better tonight," said Coach Cotton after the sweep. "Offensively, we weren't as good as we were yesterday, but all-around, I think we just played a lot better game today.
"It was good to see Anthony Castillo come out and throw as well as he did. It's great to get a young guy and put them in that position and see how they react, and Skyler (Quintal), he's got ice in his veins and stayed really cool up there, threw a ton of strikes and worked ahead in the count and got us out of the situation.
"Another guy that was impressive today was Skyler Podesek at the plate. He tore the cover off the ball."
Royals 13, Capitals 2
Royals 17, Capitals 15
After breezing to a relatively easy 13-2 win in the first game, the Royals showed what they were made of in the second game, outlasting a scrappy Capitals team 17-15 in eight innings.
Tom Hennessey had a great effort on the mound in the first game, striking out 11 and limiting the Boise Capitals to just three hits. The Royals, meanwhile, had five-run innings in the fourth and sixth to end it in six innings.
With the win, Tom Hennessey improved to 5-0 on the season.
He helped himself out at the plate with three hits, two RBIs and scored three runs.
Alex Rodriguez had a monster game with four hits, three of them doubles, and drove in five runs.
David Bitrick and Skyler Podesek both had two hits and an RBI.Anthony Castillo, Ronnie Young and Austin Bodily also had hits. Castillo scored two runs and Bodily had an RBI.
In the second game, the Royals got off to an 8-0 lead after three and it looked like it would be over soon, but the Capitals plated four runs in the fourth and five in the sixth to come within two, 12-10. After Mountain Home added two more in the top of the seventh to extend their lead to 14-10, the Capitals came back with four in the seventh to tie it at 14-14 and force extra innings.
The Royals got big hits in the top of the eighth to score three runs and go up 17-14.
Alex Rodriguez, who came on in relief in the sixth, gave up one run in the eighth as part of Mountain Home's winning effort. The Capitals had the bases loaded when he struck out the final batter to end a 17-15 wild one, the Royals getting the sweep.
Gage Curtis had three hits in the game, including a crucial RBI-triple in the eighth. David Bitrick, Skyler Podesek and Eric Christiansen each had two hits and two RBIs. Bitrick had a triple and Podesek a double. For Christiansen they were his first hits and RBIs since coming off foot surgery that had him out of the lineup for three weeks.
Trevor Woodruff, Tom Hennessey, Jesse Rodriguez and Ronnie Young also had hits. Woodruff and Rodriguez had doubles, Rodriguez drove in three runs, and Hennessey and Young had RBIs.
Alex Rodriguez picked up the win, striking out eight in three innings of relief, to improve to 7-2 on the season.
"I think that first game was one of Tom (Hennessey)'s better outings of the year," said Coach Cotton after the late night sweep. "He's been solid for us all year, but he had his stuff really working and good velocity on his pitches.
"If you get right down to it, the guys made big hits when we needed them in some tough situations," the coach added. "It's good to see that the guys are going to hit in the clutch, and I like what I see heading into district."
The Royals finished their regular season schedule 16-4 in league play, good for the number two seed in the Area B Class A Eastern Division Tournament, which started Monday at Mountain Home. The Royals, 34-7 overall, opened play Tuesday night.
Coach Cotton likes his team's chances of making it to state.
"Now we've just got to try and figure out our pitching rotation and see how we're going to work the tournament, because it's not a small tournament when you have 11 teams. It's going to be a long week, and it's good to be hosting it."
Coach Cotton was also appreciative of the support the Royals are getting from the community in helping them host the tourney.
The Eastern Division Tounament winds up with the championship game at 1 p.m. Friday. On Saturday at Hawks Stadium in Boise, the Eastern Division second-place team plays the Western Division second-place team at 9 a.m. for the third seed from Area B, and the East winner and West winner will play at noon for the Area B championship, with the loser getting the two seed for next week's Class A State Tournament, July 28-31, at Burley.