Royal High School sweeps Pateros in baseball

ROYAL CITY - Royal High school swept Pateros, 27-0, 12-2, in a pair of 10-run rule shortened non-league baseball games on Saturday to level its record at 3-3.

The Knights will return to action next Tuesday, April 5, with a non-league contest against Highland at Royal City. They will launch the South Central A Conference East season with two games against Connell at home Saturday.

The first game on Saturday featured the sparkling pitching of No. 1 starter junior Danny Vermeer. He struck out 10 batters over five innings and allowed only one hit.

Vermeer was also a leader on offense. He produced a hit and a walk and scored three times.

The Knights collected 12 hits as a team. Tanner Witaker went 2-for-2 and scored twice.

Kent Christensen pitched the first four innings of the second game, striking out four batters and issuing one walk. He was ahead in the count with every batter during his stint on the mound.

Vermeer had another good outing at the plate, batting 2-for-3 and scoring four times. Whitaker batted 2-4 with three runs batted in.

Zach Christensen had two hits, including a game-ending double off the wall that scored Whitaker.

Earlier in the week, the Knights dropped a 13-8 non-league contest at Warden. Coach Darin Christensen used the game to get a look at his second-line pitchers and rest the regular starters.

Zach Christensen started and struggled with eight walks over two innings, but had four strikeouts. Anthony Westcott took over and gave up four runs early in his stint before tossing three scoreless innings.

"Our defense improved, and we learned more about people and positions," coach Christensen said.

On offense, Vermeer went 2-for-5. Westcott, who leads the team in batting, went  2-for-3.