Royals make comeback for 11-8 win over Seminoles

It took two comeback efforts for the Mountain Home Royals Sunday night before they held on for an 11-8 win over the Boise Seminoles in the Area B Class A American Legion Baseball Tournament at Bishop Kelly High School in Boise.

Skylar Quintal had a rough start for the Royals on the mound, walking five batters in the first inning as the Seminoles managed to score twice without the benefit of a hit. He settled down in the second inning, striking out the side and held the 'noles scoreless in the third.

Mountain Home grabbed a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third on an RBI-single by Adrian Martinez, but the Seminoles got to Skylar Quintal for four straight hits to regain the lead and a two-run throwing error made it 6-3, Boise.

The Seminoles added another run in the top of the fifth to make it 7-3, but Mountain Home batted around in the bottom of the fifth, scoring five runs. Jesse Rodriguez's two-run double put the Royals up 8-7.

The Royals extended their lead in the sixth, scoring three runs, two on a home run by Jake Hennessey, to up the lead to 11-7.

Jesse Rodriguez walked four batters in the top of the seventh as the Seminoles plated a run, but Levi Abrahamson came on to get the final two outs and record his second save of the season as the Royals hung on for an 11-8 win.

"I think the most upsetting thing about it is we've worked harder than we have all year to make sure we were prepared for this, and, you know, we took five steps backward today," said Royals head coach and manager Alex Hoffman. "Hats off to our guys for figuring it out and doing what they had to do to win a ball game, but all the same, I would have liked to see a different ball club out there today."

Jake Hennessey, Zach Peterson, Adrian Martinez and Jesse Cobos all had two hits. Hennessey had a home run and three RBIs. Peterson and Martinez also drove in runs and Cobos had a double. Jesse Rodriguez had a two-run double and Alex Rodriguez had a two-run single. Danny Brescia also had a hit.

Jesse Rodriguez picked up the win to improve to 3-0 and Levi Abrahamson earned his second save.

The win put the Royals into a Monday afternoon game against the Boise Capitals, a team they split with during the regular season at Capital, winning the first game 17-11 and losing the second, 9-8.

The district tourney runs through this Saturday with three teams advancing to the State Class A Tournament Aug. 2-5 in Pocatello.