Royals split series with Kuna

The Mountain Home Royals dropped conference games to the Boise Gems and Kuna Diamondbacks last week, as they went 3-2 for the week.

Boise Gems 3

Royals 2

The Boise Gems scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to hand the Mountain Home Royals their first conference loss of the season, 3-2, last Wednesday at Timberline Park in Boise.

Both teams scored a run in the first inning and added another run in the fifth, as Mountain Home's Gabe Anderson and Boise's Tre Gooding were locked in a great pitching duel.

"It was a good game," said Royals head coach Matt Bundy after the game. "There were a couple of defensive plays I'd like to re-run a little bit -- a couple of miscommunications, one in the outfield and one behind first base -- but we had our chances. The kids are obviously a little down, but that was a well-played baseball game."

The Royals had just six hits off Boise's Tre Gooding, who struck out 11. Alex Hoffman had a double and RBI, Eric Christiansen and Zane Bundy had doubles, Chris Rau had a hit and RBI, and Ricky Lee and Brock Morris also had hits.

Gabe Anderson suffered the loss, dropping to 3-2 on the season.

Royals 9, 11

Seminoles 2, 1

The Royals swept a doubleheader from the Boise Seminoles Friday evening at Fort Boise, winning the first game, 9-2, and the second, 11-1.

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the first game, but the Seminoles took advantage of three hits, a walk and a hit batter to score two in the second to go up 2-1.

Mountain Home tied the score in the third, and scored three in the fifth to go up 5-2, added another run in the sixth, and put the game out of reach with three more in the seventh.

Alex Hoffman, Ricky Lee, Chris Rau, Jake Hiler and Ricky Baker all had two hits. Hoffman had a triple and two RBIs. Hiler had a double and two RBIs. Baker had two RBIs, and Lee and Rau each knocked in one run. Eric Christiansen also had a hit.

Chris Rau went the distance for the win, allowing just one hit after the second inning. He improved to 7-0 on the season.

"I thought we could have come out a little more fired up, and we let them hit the ball a lot more than I thought we were going to, but the boys did all right," said Royals assistant coach James Morris after the first game. "Chris Rau got much stronger as the game went by, rebounded well and kept his head on straight and was able to get the win."

The Royals scored six runs in the fourth inning to break open a close game and added four more runs in the fifth to win the second 11-1 in five.

Alex Hoffman, Gabe Anderson and Brock Morris all had two hits in the second game. Hoffman had an inside-the-park home run and an RBI, Anderson had an RBI. Jordan Cisna had a hit and two RBIs, Eric Christiansen and Ricky Lee had hits and RBIs, Jake Hiler had a triple, Ricky Baker had a double, and Cal Vivier had an RBI.

Tom Hennessey pitched a two-hitter, striking out five batters. The lone run was unearned.

"The defense played really well and we started hitting the ball, so it was a good win," said Hennessey, who improved to 3-0 on the season.

Royals 4, 2

Kuna 9, 0

The Royals came away with a split of their games at Kuna Saturday, dropping the conference game 9-4 and taking the nightcap 2-0.

The 4 p.m. first game at Kuna never got under way until 5:18 p.m. Saturday as the umpires were a no-show. An off-duty umpire was finally contacted and he agreed to come, but the game had an hour and 18 minute delay and it appeared to bother the Royals as they struggled at the plate.

Kuna got to Royals starter Jake Hiler for two runs in the first inning, and the score stayed 2-0, Kuna, until the fourth, when Mountain Home used three hit batters, two walks and two hits to score four runs to take a 4-2 lead.

Jake Hiler shut down the Diamondbacks after the first inning until the fifth, when the wheels came off, Kuna erupting for six runs to take an 8-4 lead. They added another run off Gabe Anderson in the sixth to hand the Royals their second conference loss of the season, 9-4.

"We really struggled there and the game got a little out of reach," said Coach Bundy. "A couple of innings early there we left runners in scoring position and couldn't push them across and break it open. To their credit, they hit the ball pretty decent. I'm not going to blame anything, but the hour delay did not help our focus. But they had the same issue and managed to handle it better than our players did."

The Royals managed just four hits. Alex Hoffman had two of them and knocked in two runs. Ricky Lee had a hit and RBI and Jake Hiler had a double. Cal Vivier also had an RBI.

Jake Hiler fell to 3-3 on the season with the loss.

The Royals managed to score single runs in the second and fourth innings of the nightcap as Eric Christiansen and Jordan Cisna combined on a four-hit shutout to lead the Royals to a 2-0 victory in five innings.

Ricky Baker had a double and Ricky Lee, Tom Hennessey, Alex Hoffman, Jake Hiler and Trevor Woodruff also had hits. Chris Maholick had an RBI.

Eric Christiansen didn't give up a hit until the fourth inning, when he gave up three. He struck five batters. Jordan Cisna pitched the fifth and gave up one hit while striking out two.

"I'll take a 2-0 win after a disappointing loss to kind of get us back in the groove a little bit," said Coach Bundy after the second game. "We've just got to work on our hitting more."

The Royals entered this busy last week of the regular season 12-2 in conference and 25-5 overall.

The Royals were at Centennial for a single game against the Cannons on Monday night, had a doubleheader at Buhl on Tuesday night, have a single game against the Boise Barons tonight at 7 p.m., go to Columbia for two Friday starting at 4 p.m., and close out their regular season schedule Saturday with a doubleheader at home against Glenns Ferry starting at 5 p.m.

The Area B Class A District Tournament runs July 22-28 at Columbia and Rodeo Park in Nampa.