HS BASEBALL: Royal 6-4, Connell 14-1

ROYAL CITY - The Royal Knights bounced back from a disappointing start to their South Central Athletic Conference (SCAC) East campaign to earn a split in their home doubleheader against rivals Connell on Saturday.

The visiting Connell squad won 14-6 in game one only to see their offense muffled by Royal pitching as the Knights (4-6, 1-1) earned the split with a 4-1 victory.

Royal and Connell battled evenly through the first few innings of the opener but Connell got two five-spots in the fifth and seventh innings to pull ahead after trailing 6-4.

Four errors hurt the Royal cause.

"That took us out of our game and we could not recover mentally," Royal head coach Daren Christensen said.

Uli Montoya went 3-for-4 with three singles to lead the Knights.

In the second game victory, Royal got a complete game effort from pitcher Kent Christensen who gave up seven hits while striking out six and walking only one Connell batter.

Royal trailed 1-0 after five innings but got two runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings to rally for victory.

"It was a good day to come away with the split," Daren Christensen said. "We really would like to have come away with a sweep but overall we are making improvements and continue to battle to the end."