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Royals pick up four key wins
The Mountain Home Royals bounced back from their loss to Baker City in the Pepsi Challenge Tournament, picking up four important league wins last week in Class A American Legion baseball.
Royals 12
Cannons 5
Jordan Cisna keyed a nine-run sixth inning as the Royals downed the Centennial Cannons 12-5 last Tuesday night at Centennial.
Cisna, in his first game back after a short vacation with his family, had a pair of two-run singles in the sixth inning to help spark the rally.
The Royals had led, 3-0, after two, but lost the lead in the third, and trailed 5-3 going into the sixth.
"Jordan Cisna was a huge part of that win -- four RBIs in one inning," said Royals head baseball coach Mark Cotton in radio comments after the game. "Jordan was sitting on the bench the first part of the game, he'd been gone a while, and he came in and got those hits -- that's huge, especially after being away from the game for a little while."
Cisna had two hits and four RBIs, Chris Rau had a two-run double, Ricky Lee had four hits, Joe Poseley, Eric Christiansen and Gabe Anderson each had two hits, Anderson scored three runs and had an RBI, Christiansen had an RBI. Tom Hennessey had a hit and drove in two runs, and Jake Hiler and Brock Morris also had hits.
David Zito improved to 5-1, striking out six batters in six innings, and Joe Poseley threw a scoreless seventh inning.
Royals 10
Barons 3
Once again a big sixth inning proved to be the difference, as Mountain Home scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth to break a 3-3 tie and go on to a 10-3 win.
"Gabe Anderson threw great and stayed ahead in the count and it was really a pretty dominating performance," said Coach Cotton after the game. "He didn't get much run support until the sixth inning. It's kind of frustrating in that aspect.
"The past two days we've come through when we've had to, when our backs were against the wall. That's a positive, but I think offensively, we've definitely got to get better. Defensively, we were a little better today, but offensively, the past two games I think we've struggled.
"We had glimpses of what we are and what we can be, but it's just one of those things. It's been a long season, and you're going to have your ups and downs, and I think we're kind of in between right now. I think we're going to be a good team and I think we're going to be competitive and do really well at district, but we've got to come out a bit more fired up than we did today."
Jake Hiler and Ricky Lee both had three hits, Hiler had a double and a triple and three RBIs, Lee had two RBIs. Joe Poseley and David Zito both had hits and RBIs, Tom Hennessey had a hit and scored three runs, Jordan Cisna had a hit, and Chris Rau had an RBI.
Gabe Anderson went the distance for the win, improving to 5-0, striking out 10 and scattering four hits.
Royals 20
Indians 5
A 17-run fourth inning by the Royals helped Mountain Home to a 20-5 win in five innings Friday night in Mountain Home.
A four-run second by the Indians gave Nampa a 5-1 lead. A two-run third by Mountain Home cut the deficit to 5-3, and the Royals sent 23 batters to the plate in the fourth inning, scoring 17 runs to shoot out to a 20-5 lead.
"That kind of seems to be the theme this week, kind of a slow start and then get it going when we have to," said Coach Cotton, talking about the big fourth inning. "If we keep getting wins and getting the job done, we have no difficulty with that. Chris (Rau) actually -- and it might not show it on the scoreboard -- threw very, very well. We had to take him out early because his pitch count was getting up there. Ricky (Baker) came in and threw great, also. It was a great effort all around, especially offensively."
Chris Rau gave up all five runs in two innings of work, with just two of the runs earned. He had two strikeouts and walked five. Ricky Baker pitched three scoreless innings to get the win, improving to 2-2 on the season.
The Royals had 14 hits and took advantage of 10 walks by Nampa pitchers. Ricky Lee, Brock Morris, Jake Hiler, Chris Rau and David Zito all had two hits, Morris, Hiler and Zito all had three RBIs, Lee and Rau both knocked in two runs. Joe Poseley, Gabe Anderson, Tom Hennessey and Steven Budine all had hits and RBIs, Shawn Lewis and Ricky Baker also had RBIs.
Royals 5
Capitals 2
Tom Hennessey keyed a three-run sixth inning for the Royals Saturday with a two-run double that broke a 2-2 tie as the Royals went on to a 5-2 win over the Boise Capitals in Mountain Home.
All five of Mountain Home's runs were scored with two out. The first two came in the second, with back-to-back hits by David Zito and Ricky Baker.
Single runs by Boise in the fourth and sixth tied the game at 2-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, Joe Poseley led off the inning with his third hit of the game. Jordan Cisna moved Poseley to second on a sacrifice bunt. Poseley was then picked off second for the second out of the inning.
David Zito and Ricky Baker then both drew walks and advanced to third and second respectively on a passed ball. Tom Hennessey then doubled in both runners to give the Royals a 4-2 lead.
Ricky Lee followed with a single that scored Hennessey, giving Mountain Home a 5-2 lead.
"There were obviously some key performances late in the game that played big because we didn't come out here hitting the ball as well as we should or could," said Royals manager Travis Devore, "but Jake (Hiler) gave us a great game and and gave us a chance to win the ball game late.
"Capital did a great job battling, but Hiler had another great outing for us, and we had key hits down the stretch. Joe Poseley leading off with a couple hits in different innings, and then going into that two-out go-ahead run hit by Tom Hennessey, and then Ricky Lee coming in and adding the third run on, which is a huge run to put up there.
"Obviously, the guys have it when they're absolutely focused. It's a little bit disconcerting because you want to have that focus in the first few innings, but I'm proud of the victory and proud of the way they responded to a little bit of adversity, because that certainly was a game where you can fold, and they didn't."
Joe Poseley had three hits for the Royals. Tom Hennessey had a two-run double, Ricky Baker had an RBI-double, and Ricky Lee and David Zito both had RBI-singles. Jake Hiler also had a hit.
Hiler gave up just three hits and struck out nine in improving to 6-0 on the season.
The win improved the Royals to 12-3 in league play, and 27-8 overall. Mountain Home closes out its regular season schedule this afternoon with a doubleheader against Kuna starting at 5 p.m.
"It's amazing that we're at this point already," said Coach DeVore, "but we need to win that first game of that doubleheader, and we're confident that we're right up there as the number one or two seed out of the east, so hopefully we get the job done."
The Area B Class A District Tournament starts July 24 at Timberine and Bishop Kelly.