Royals sweep Seminoles during double header

The Mountain Home Royals started the week off with a doubleheader sweep of the Boise Seminoles and tried six days later to make it three in a row over the Seminoles.

But they blew a 4-0 lead to lose to the Seminoles 5-4 in the fifth-place game at the Firecracker Invitational Tournament.

Royals 6, Seminoles 0

Royals 6, Seminoles 3

The Mountain Home Royals extended their current win streak to four with a doubleheader sweep of the Boise Seminoles Monday night at Fort Boise, winning the first game 6-0 and taking the nightcap 6-3.

Levi Abrahamson threw a four-hit shutout in the first game, striking out two and getting great defense behind him as the Royals went errorless.

Kody Arellano, Cody Blakemore and Bailey Miller-Hodge each had two hits in the first game. Arellano had a double and drove in a run. Blakemore also drove in a run. Zach Petersen, Levi Abrahamson, Tyler McCall and Jace Bennett also had hits.Petersen drove in two runs and McCall one. Esmer Castillo also had an RBI.

In the second game, Cody Blakemore's bases-loaded double in the seventh inning keyed a four-run uprising that gave the Royals the win.

Blakemore and Bailey Miller-Hodge both had two hits, including doubles. Zach Petersen, Levi Abrahamson and Jace Bennett also had hits. Petersen scored two runs.

Tyler McCall picked up the win, throwing six innings of three-hit ball. Zach Petersen pitched a scoreless seventh inning to get the save.

Royals head coach Michael Hobgood was pleased with the sweep.

"Two great conference wins. Levi (Abrahamson) and Tyler (McCall) both took no-hitters into the fifth innings. Levi just threw fewer pitches and pitched to contact, whereas Tyler ran into some control issues, but overall, those two are the reason we won.

"It also helps when you have a guy like Zach (Petersen) to close out a game.

"Game one, we really had it clicking offensively, and really rolled to the win game two, however, we got passive once again and struggled, but as usual with us, we hit when it mattered and came through with two huge wins."

Pocatello 6, Mountain Home 1

Mountain Home saw its current four-game win streak snapped by the Pocatello Razorbacks in the opening game of the Firecracker Invitational Tournament Thursday morning at Wigle Field at Borah High School in Boise.

Both teams put up a run in the first inning, but the Razorbacks added four in the fifth and one more in the sixth inning for the 6-1 win, to improve to 29-0 on the season.

Cody Blakemore and Tyler McCall both had two hits for the Royals, but no other Mountain Home batter was able to get a hit. McCall knocked in the Royals only run.

Zach Petersen suffered the loss for the Royals, going the distance, giving up four earned runs while striking out three batters.

Badgers 6, Royals 3

The GNBC Badgers scored twice in the sixth inning to take the lead and went on to a 6-3 win Thursday in the Firecracker Invitational at Borah's Wigle Field.

The Badgers, from the Elko-Winnemucca area of Nevada, built up a 3-0 lead but Mountain Home tied it with three runs in the bottom of the third inning.

The Badgers struck for two runs in the sixth and added another in the seventh for a 6-3 win.

Levi Abrahamson had two hits for the Royals. Shae Sterling, Cody Blakemore, Esmer Castillo and Bailey Miller-Hodge also had hits.

Sterling knocked in two runs and Blakemore one. Bailey Miller-Hodge suffered the loss, despite five strong innings of work.

Royals 8, Prosser 3

The Royals returned to the win column Friday with an 8-3 win over the Prosser, Wash., 'Stangs in the Firecracker Invitational at Centennial High School in Meridian.

Both teams scored three runs in the third inning but the Royals added four more in the fourth and another in the seventh for an 8-3 win, their first of the tournament.

Shae Sterling had the hot bat for the Royals, collecting three hits, including a double, while driving in two runs and scoring two himself. Jesse Cobos, Levi Abrahamson and Derek Kellogg also had hits. Bailey Miller-Hodge had two RBIs and scored two runs and Kody Arellano also scored twice.

Jesse Cobos pitched six quality innings for the win, scattering five hits while striking out four. Levi Abrahamson pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the Royals.

Mountain Home 7

Spanish Springs 3

Mountain Home received good pitching and timely hitting Saturday as the Royals downed Spanish Springs 7-3 in the Firecracker Invitational at Capital High School in Boise.

The Royals took the lead for good with four runs in the fourth and added single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh to record the 7-3 win over the Reno, Nev., team.

Shae Sterling, Jesse Cobos, Kody Arellano and Teddy Reaume all had two hits in the game. Sterling knocked in two runs while Cobos scored two runs and knocked in one. Tyler McCall, Zach Petersen and Cody Blakemore also had hits. McCall had an RBI.

Blakemore picked up the win, scattering five hits and giving up just one earned run while striking out four.

Mountain Home 4, Wood River 3

Levi Abrahamson had a solid performance on the mound for the Royals Saturday as he pitched Mountain Home to a 4-3 win over Wood River at Borah's Wigle Field.

Abrahamson struck out 10 while scattering six hits, and gave up no earned runs in the complete game win. He also had a hit and RBI.

Shae Sterling had two hits, Kody Arellano had a double, Zach Peteren, Jesse Cobos and Bailey Miller-Hodge also had hits and Teddy Reaume had an RBI.

Seminoles 5, Royals 4

The Royals faced the Boise Seminoles for fifth place Sunday at Wigle Field at Borah High School, but could not hold on to the lead, dropping a 5-4 contest.

Mountain Home scored twice in the first inning and added two more in the third to go up 4-0. The Seminoles got to Royals starter Tyler McCall for one run in the fifth inning and scored four times against reliever Kody Arellano in the seventh for the win.

The Royals had just four hits in the game. Jesse Cobos had an RBI-double and Shae Sterling, Zach Petersen and Bailey Miller-Hodge also had hits. Sterling scored two runs. David Welle and Tyler McCall also had RBIs.

Three Mountain Home pitchers allowed just four hits but walked 11 batters. Korey Arellano, the second of three Royal pitchers, suffered the loss.

Royals head coach Michael Hobgood thought his team had a great tournament and learned a lot from it.

"Overall, I'm pleased with our performance. Should we have gone 6-0? Absolutely, but we got to play some teams we've never played and faced some adversity.

"These tournaments are really a just a no-consequence rehearsal for district and state.

"We lost some games I felt we could have won, and also beat some very good teams. Four of the five teams we played made it to Sunday, and two of them played for third or higher, including a Wood River team we beat.

"The Boise (Seminoles) game today (Sunday), we were working on new things. All our main starters were (playing) out of position, and we played a lot of young guys. I took my guys' running game away and forced them to hit and execute, so we were really working on things today, still wanting to win, but at the same time realizing we have weaknesses and trying to strengthen those. But Boise did their job and pulled out the win.

"Overall, I think we got better and helped prepare ourselves to make a deep run into the post season."

The Royals take an 8-4 league record and 23-14 overall mark into this week's games.

They hosted the Boise Capitals for two league games on Tuesday, play the Boise Gems in a league doubleheader at Timberline Park in Boise Thursday, host the Twin Falls Cowboys for two non-league games on Friday and close out their league schedule at home Saturday with a doubleheader against Kuna.

Their final game of the regular season is July 14 at Columbia.