Royals go three-for-five in Legion baseball action

The Mountain Home Royals won three of five games last week in American Legion baseball.

Royals 12, Cannons 2

Royals 4, Cannons 16

The Royals were a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde last Tuesday night at home, beating the Centennial Cannons 12-2 in six innings in the first game, but then getting beat 16-4 in six by Centennial in the nightcap.

In the first game, the Cannons got to Royals starter Jared Day for two runs in the top of the first, but Mountain Home scored seven in the bottom of the first to go up 7-2.

Day settled down and held the Cannons scoreless the next four innings. Gage Curtis closed it out with a scoreless sixth.

Meanwhile, the Royals added two runs in the second and two more in the fifth, ending the game by the 10-run rule with a run in the sixth to make it 12-2.

Austin Bodily, Alex Rodriguez, Ronny Young, Jesse Rodriguez and Alex Burke all had two hits for Mountain Home. Young had a double and triple and drove in two runs. Bodily had a double and RBI. Jesse and Alex Rodriguez and Alex Burke all had RBIs. Burke's ended the game. Skylar Quintal had a hit and two RBIs, Danny Brescia had an RBI-triple, and Justin Schmitt and John Kennison also had hits.

Jared Day struck out 12 batters in five innings and improved to 4-0 on the season.

The second game started well enough, with the Royals scoring two in the bottom of the first to take a 2-0 lead, but Mountain Home got sloppy defensively in the second, as the Cannons scored six runs, added two more in the third, three in the fourth and five in the sixth to stick it to the Royals, 16-4, in six.

Mountain Home managed just five hits in the second game, with Austin Bodily getting two of them, including a double and RBI. Ronny Young had an RBI-single and Skylar Quintal and Danny Brescia also had hits.

Alex Burke, the first of three pitchers for the Royals, suffered the loss to drop to 0-2.

"The first game they came out and they did more than I anticipated," said Royals head coach Alex Hoffman. "Considering that we took the last couple of days off because of the holiday, that really wasn't what I expected coming out today. But they proved me wrong and they proved themselves right and it worked out for us.

"I could throw a million excuses your way as to our play in the second game," the coach added. "It's the time in between games, it's the heat, it's this, that and the other thing, but that other team's in the same situation as we are. I still to this day feel that we're a better baseball club than losing 16-4 to anybody, but that's just the way it works sometimes. If we can learn from it, hopefully, it's going to better these kids, maybe not this year, but somewhere down the line."

Royals 10, Capitals 3

Royals 14, Capitals 13

Last Wednesday night the Royals managed a sweep of the Boise Capitals at home, winning the first game 10-3 and then battling back and hanging on to win a wild second game 14-13.

In the first game, Mountain Home broke open a close game with four runs in the fourth and three in the fifth. The Capitals scored two in the top of the seventh to make it a 10-3 final.

Alex Rodriguez went the distance for the win, scattering five hits and striking out seven batters to improve to 4-1 on the season.

Ronny Young had a big bat with three hits, including a triple and two RBIs. Austin Bodily had two hits, including a double, and scored three runs. Jake Hennessey had a three-run inside-the-park home run -- his second of the season.

Ryan Goldsby and Danny Brescia had RBI singles and Gage Curtis and Joe Gutierrez also had hits. John Kennison also drove in a run.

The second game started very much like the second game against Centennial the night before, with the Royals going up 2-0 after one and the Capitals scoring seven in the top of the second to go ahead 7-2.

But the Royals battled back with five in the bottom half to tie it at 7-7.

Mountain Home scored three in the third to go up 10-7, but the Capitals rallied for three to tie in the fourth, and went up 11-10 with a run in the top of the fifth.

Back came the Royals with four runs in the bottom of the fifth to go up 14-11.

Boise scored twice in the top of the sixth to make it 14-13, with Skylar Quintal coming on in relief of Gage Curtis to get the final out of the sixth.

In the top of the seventh, Boise's lead-off batter tripled off Skylar Quintal to start the inning, but Quintal got a ground out, line-drive out and another grounder to get out of the inning, the Royals hanging on to win, 14-13, to get the sweep.

Four Royals had two hits in the game, led by Gage Curtis with a double, triple and three RBIs. Ronny Young had two hits, including a double, scored three runs and drove in two. Austin Bodily had two hits and scored three times, and Jake Hennessey had two hits and an RBI.

Danny Brescia had a two-run single and Skylar Quintal and Ryan Goldsby also had hits. Alex Rodriguez also drove in a run.

Gage Curtis got the win to improve to 2-2 on the season and Skylar Quintal earned the save.

Coach Hoffman was happy to come away with a sweep of the Capitals.

"It's always nice to get a sweep, especially when they're both conference games, and in my eyes, that was one of the better teams that we've seen in our conference all year," the coach said. "We didn't give up, and it ended up working out for us."

The sweep improved the Royals to 18-8 on the season and 13-4 in division play.

Glenns Ferry 5, Mountain Home 4

The Royals took on the Glenns Ferry Pirates Saturday in Glenns Ferry and came up on the short end of a 5-4 contest as Glenns Ferry's Adrian Martinez held the Royals at bay.

Glenns Ferry took a 1-0 lead in the second, and after the Royals tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the third, the Pirates regained the lead, 2-1, after three.

Mountain Home again tied the game in the top of the fourth, but the Pirates answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning and added two more in the sixth to go up 5-2.

The Royals got to the Pirates' Adrian Martinez for two runs in the top of the seventh, but the Pirates' ace ended the game with a strikeout, his 14th of the game.

"He threw a good game," said Coach Hoffman regarding the effort by Martinez. "He didn't locate his best, but he did a great job picking out what our hitters' weaknesses were and he pounded the zone there. When you've got velocity like that, it's hard to compete with."

Alex Rodriguez led the Royals at the plate with two hits and an RBI. Jake Hennessey also had two hits. Ryan Goldsby had an RBI single and Danny Brescia and John Kennison also had hits.

Jared Day threw three innings, giving up two runs, and Jesse Rodriguez threw the last three, giving up three runs and suffering the loss to fall to 2-1 on the season.

The Royals took an 18-9 overall record and 13-5 league mark into Monday's regular season-ending league doubleheader at home against Kuna.

The district tourney starts Saturday at Centennial.