Highland's early leads dashes Royal hopes

ROYAL CITY - A tough lead up to South Central Athletic Conference (SCAC) East play was what the Royal Knights expected against Highland on Tuesday.

But, they still would have preferred to have come away with at least a win as they were swept by their guests 10-3 and 6-1.

In the opener, Highland led 4-0 before Royal (3-5) got up to the plate and would lead 5-1 after three innings. A five-run sixth inning gave Highland the lead they would need to put the game away. 

"We were not able to come back mentally to keep fighting which caused some errors that lead to their runs," Royal head coach Daren Christensen said.

The host Knights did knock out nine hits, led by Ricky Ramirez's 2-for-3 performance and Tanner Whitaker's 3-for-4 day with two RBI.

The nightcap saw Highland do the same thing as the first game, as they scored three runs in their first at bad to set the pace.

This time, Knights pitching kept Highland in check but the Royal bats were kept silent as well, as they were held to a sole second-inning run and seven total hits.

"Highland came out and score behind  a combination of walks, hit by pitch, and errors," Christensen said. "We closed the gap in the second inning but struggled to get more runs across.  Twice we had runners at second and third with one out and could not get the clutch hit."

Uli Montoya went 2-for-4 and Zachary Christensen ended up 2-fo-3 to spearhead the Royal offense.

Tomorrow, Royal opens up league play against their rivals, Connell.