Royals fall short in quest for state title

The Mountain Home Royals' quest for a State Class A American Legion Baseball Tournament berth looked pretty good after they followed up their opening district tourney win with a victory over the Emmett Blue Devils, and was still within their grasp after suffering a loss to Mountain View.

But a loss to a red-hot Boise Capitals team ended their season at the Area B East Division Tournament.

Royals 6 Emmett 3

After they opened the Area B Class A Eastern Division Tournament with an 8-5 win over the Boise Barons, the Royals faced Emmett last Monday in the quarter-finals at Timberline Park in Boise.

Mountain Home took the lead for good in the second and beat the Blue Devils 6-3.

Emmett scored a run in the top of the second to go up 1-0, but the Royals put two runs across the plate to go up 2-1.

Mountain Home added four more runs in the fourth inning to go up 6-1, and held off the Blue Devils for a 6-3 win.

"It was a good win," said Royals head coach Alex Hoffman after the game. "The best way for these kids to learn is to stick to one philosophy and run with it. Granted, I ran us into a couple of things that we could have taken advantage of early in the game, but at the same time, the guys fought through it and we got the win."

Jesse Cobos and Teddy Reaume both had two hits for the Royals against Emmett. Cobos scored two runs and Reaume had an RBI. John Kennison, Zach Petersen, Jesse Rodriguez, Skylar Quintal and Bailer Miller-Hodge had hits. Kennison and Miller-Hodge had RBIs and Miller-Hodge scored two runs.

Jesse Rodriguez went six innings to get the win, improving to 5-0 on the season. Jesse Cobos pitched the seventh inning to pick up his third save of the season.

Mountain View Toros 7 Royals 5

A seventh inning rally by the Royals proved too little, too late, as they dropped a 7-5 contest to the Mountain View Toros in the Eastern Division semi-final July 23 at Timberline Park in Boise.

Mountain View got on the scoreboard in the top of the second and the Royals countered with a run in the bottom half of the inning.

The score stayed at 1-1 until the fifth when the Toros got to Royals starter Zach Petersen for three runs. Jesse Cobos relieved Petersen in the fifth to stop the Mountain View scoring, but the Toros got to Cobos for three runs in the sixth to make it 7-1, Toros.

Mountain Home finally rallied for four runs in the seventh, but could score no more, dropping a 7-5 contest.

"The scoreboard is really misleading there, because that wasn't a 7-5 loss in my eyes," said Coach Hoffman after the game. "We struggled at the plate, and we just couldn't make our adjustments, and hats off to our guys for making it a ball game in the seventh and showing they had a little bit of pride.

"We've seen it time and time again, if we don't show up at the ball park with that attitude we had in the seventh inning for the whole ball game, things are going to get shaky, and we paid for it tonight."

Mountain Home managed just six hits off three Mountain View pitchers and three of those came in the seventh. Skylar Quintal had a two-run double and Danny Brescia had an RBI-single. John Kennison, Zach Petersen, Bailey Miller-Hodge and Teddy Reaume also had hits. Jake Ryan had an RBI.

Zach Petersen suffered the loss for the Royals to fall to 4-4 on the season.

Boise Capitals 10 Royals 4

The Mountain View loss put the Royals against the Boise Capitals last Wednesday. The Capitals, after dropping their tourney opener to Emmett had won four straight, including a 14-3 win over the top-seeded Boise Gems just before facing the Royals. The Capitals hot bats continued against Mountain Home, as they drowned the Royals 10-4, to end Mountain Home's season.

Boise took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Royals pushed across three runs in the second to go up 3-1.

The lead held up until the fourth, when the Capitals put timely hits together with three errors plus walks and hit batters to send 13 batters to the plate and scored 7 runs to take an 8-3 lead.

The Capitals added two more runs in the fifth to go up 10-3.

Mountain Home managed to score another run in the seventh, but fell short, 10-4, to see their season come to a close.

Despite the season-ending loss, Coach Hoffman thought his young squad had a good season.

"This game aside, you know we learned a lot this year. We learned a lot about what to look forward to going into high school ball next year, and we had some guys that most definitely stepped up into some roles that we weren't sure that they were going to be able to fulfill, and they did that.

"Most importantly, we all learned a lot about ourselves. We know what kind of team we are, and with all the negative and positive moments we've had this season, one thing I know, they like to show up and play ball in the seventh inning, and you know, that's something that's going to be a plus, not only in the game of baseball for the rest of their careers, but their lives.

"I'd like to have that all game, but they just weren't that team this year, and we got past that, but for them to go out and fight the way that they did, that's something you can always be proud of, and I sure as heck am."

The Royals managed just four hits off three Boise pitchers. Teddy Reaume had an RBI-double and John Kennison, Jake Ryan, and Levi Abrahamson also had hits. Ross Harlan had an RBI.

Jesse Cobos, the second of four Royals pitchers, suffered the loss, his first in six decisions.

The Royals finish the season 23-8 overall.