Royals drop league game, go 4-1 during light week

The Mountain Home Royals dropped their first league game last week as they came away with a split of a doubleheader at Capital against Boise. In a light week of games, the Royals went 4-1.

Royals 14, Toros 3

Royals 16, Toros 4

The Mountain Home Royals took two, five-inning games from the Mountain View Toros last Tuesday in Mountain Home during two decisive wins.

In the first game, the Royals jumped out to a 5-0 first inning lead and extended it to 13-1 after three. David Abrahamson scattered five hits and struck out seven batters to improve to 4-0 on the season. He also knocked in a run.

Adrian Martinez and Jake Ryan both had hits and drove in three runs. Clay Anderson had two hits and an RBI and scored three runs. John Kennison had as hit and an RBI, Jesse Cobos and Tyler McCall also had RBIs while Danny Brescia scored three runs.

The Royals pounded out 13 hits in the nightcap. Danny Brescia, Adrian Martinez, Jesse Cobos and Edy Mesillas all had two hits with Brescia, Martinez and Cobos adding two RBIs. Martinez had a home run, Cobos a triple and Mesillas had two doubles and an RBI. Teddy Reaume, Jake Ryan, John Kennison, Levi Abrahamson and Skylar Quintal also had hits with Reaume, Ryan and Quintal adding RBIs, Abrahamson had a double and two RBIs.

Quintal picked up the win, scattering nine hits and striking out five batters to improve to 3-1 on the season.

"We had our ups and downs tonight, but the good things we did far out numbered the bad, so I was pleased with our effort," said Royals manager and head coach Alex Hoffman.

Royals 17, Capitals 11

Royals 8, Capitals 9

The Royals suffered their first league loss of the season when they split a doubleheader at Capital High School in Boise against the Capitals.

In the first game, the Royals battled back from a 5-1 deficit and took a 10-7 lead. But after the Capitals forced extra innings, Mountain Home scored seven runs in the top of the eighth to win, 17-11.

"The bats are definitely there, and that's what's keeping us in ball games," Coach Hoffman said. "Typically, we come out here and we rely on pitching and defense, but in the heat of the summer, the defense has been lagging. Thankfully, the bats have been picking us up, and we've been chalking up wins in the win column."

Danny Brescia, Adrian Martinez, Alex Rodriguez and Clay Anderson all had four hits as the Royals pounded out 21 hits in the win. Martinez drove in three runs with two triples and a home run. Rodriguez had a double and triple and drove in four runs. Anderson had a home run and two RBIs while and Brescia drove in two runs.

Levi Abrahamson had a hit and drove in two runs, Zach Peterson, Jake Ryan and Jesse Cobos also had hits. Skylar Quintal added a double and Teddy Reaume scored four runs.

Quintal, the third pitcher of the game for the Royals, picked up the win to improve to 4-1.

In the second game, Mountain Home blew some chances to break the game open in the first and second innings but took a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning. John Kennison had scattered just three hits going into the fifth, but Boise sent 12 batters to the plate before the Royals were able to get out of it. However, Capital had plated nine runs to take a 9-4 lead.

The Royals rallied in the top of the seventh and scored four and had the tying run on base, but fell short by a run to suffer their first league loss.

"(John) Kennison had thrown a gem up to that point," Coach Hoffman said regarding the fifth inning collapse. "He got taken out of the first inning without even recording an out in that first game, and I had approached him and let him know the situation, and he went out there and he's a gamer. He threw well."

Admitting he wanted to pull Kennison earlier than he did, "but all excuses aside, we've got some dead arms and we know the pitching's just not there with all these games that we've played," Hoffman said. "He'd only thrown 45 pitches up to that point... and I'd hate to say that was the reason we lost the game."

The Capitals did what they needed to win that night, "and I think that's going to be what we need to get back on a roll here," the coach added.

The Royals outhit the Capitals, 13-9. Danny Brescia, Skylar Quintal, Alex Rodriguez, Jesse Cobos and Tyler McCall all had two hits. Brescia had a double, Rodriguez drove in two runs, Quintal and McCall had RBI, McCall had a double, and Cobos had two doubles. Clay Anderson and Bailey Miller both had hits and RBI while John Kennison also had a hit.

Kennison suffered the loss to drop to 3-1 on the season.

Mountain Home 12, Middleton 4

The Royals traveled to Middleton on Friday where the jumped out to a 9-0 lead after five innings on their way to a 12-4 non-league win.

Jesse Rodriguez, making his first start on the mound for the Royals, pitched into the sixth inning to pick up his first win, striking out seven batters. Skylar Quintal closed out the game for Mountain Home, striking out four in two innings of work. Danny Brescia and Skylar Quintal did major damage at the plate for the Royals. Brescia had three hits including a double and triple and drove in five runs while Quintal had two hits and two RBI. Teddy Reaume and Bailey Miller both had hits and RBIs, Zach Peterson, Tyler McCall and John Kennison also had hits with Kennison scoring three runs.

"We came out with our complete young lineup out there and proved they're coming along this season," Coach Hoffman said.

With the win, the Royals improved to 20-4 on the season. They have an unexpected week off as their registration for the Fire Cracker Tourney at Borah and Capital this weekend apparently wasn't received in time. The Royals return to action July 6 when they host a league doubleheader with the Centennial Cannons starting at 5 p.m.