Mountain Home Royals open season with trio of wins

The Mountain Home Royals opened their 2012 American Legion Class A baseball season last week with a trio of wins over Columbia and the Boise Barons.

Royals 2, Columbia 1

(Eight innings)

Adrian Martinez scored on a sacrifice fly by Jesse Cobos in the bottom of the eighth inning to help the Mountain Home Royals edge the Columbia Mudcats, 2-1, last Thursday night at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.

Mountain Home took a 1-0 lead in the second inning before Columbia tied it up with a run in the fourth.

Levi Abrahamson pitched a scoreless eighth inning of relief against Columbia. Alex Rodriquez threw seven innings of three-hit ball, striking out 11 batters and walking six. Skylar Quintal, Adrian Martinez, Alex Rodriquez, Clay Anderson, and Edy Mesillas all had hits while Cobos and Bailey Miller both had RBIs.

Royals 13, Barons 4

Royals 6, Barons 1

Mountain Home opened its league schedule with a doubleheader sweep of the Boise Barons on Saturday afternoon at Tiger Field with a pair of decisive wins.

Mountain Home opened the doubleheader with an easy 13-4 win before they clinched it with a 6-1 victory. The Royals pounded out 12 hits in the opener with Clay Anderson and Alex Rodriquez each collecting three hits. Anderson knocked in three runs while Rodriquez added two.

Adrian Martinez had two hits and an RBI while Edy Mesillas had a three-run triple. Other hits by the Royals went to Skylar Quintal, Zach Peterson and John Kennison. Meanwhile, Jesse Cobos and Levi Abrahamson had RBIs.

Zach Peterson went five innings to get the win with two innings of scoreless relief by Levi Abrahamson.

Adrian Martinez, who helped lead the Glenns Ferry Pilots to a fourth place finish at the 2A State in Orofino just two weeks prior, pitched a complete game six-hitter, striking out 14 batters.

The Royals took their 3-0 overall lead in their league doubleheader against the Boise Senators at Borah's Wigle Field on Tuesday. They play in the Columbia Mudcat Woodbat Tourney at Columbia High School in Nampa, opening Thursday against Homedale at 3:30 p.m.

Mountain Home takes on Boise at 10 a.m. Friday morning before they play Meridian at 6:30 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, they play Kuna at 1 p.m. and take on Blacksmith at 6 p.m.