The Calabasas’ baseball team was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Somewhat perturbed following a 4-0 shutout against Westlake on Monday, the Highlanders took out their frustrations on a struggling Coyotes’ squad with a 13-1 drubbing Wednesday afternoon at home. The game was originally scheduled to be played at CHS but had to be moved once Calabasas’ field was deemed unplayable because of the heavy rainfall earlier in the week.

It was another awesome offensive display by a Royal team that has now scored a league-leading 58 runs on the season, and has scored 10 or more runs in a game three times this year.

"Today we were a little more disciplined," head coach Dan Maye said. "We took some strikes that were pitches that we usually don’t hit well and we waited until their pitcher brought it into something that we could hit. The guys were patient and that contributed to them hitting the ball hard."

Royal (7-1, 2-1 in the Marmonte) jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first inning when shortstop Phil Boscarino and designated hitter Eric Blackwell scored on a pair of passed balls.

Calabasas (0-8, 0-2 in the Marmonte) scored its only run in the top of the third on an RBI double by Spencer Silverstein that scored Jon Gropman, making the score 2-1.

It was the only rough patch in an otherwise successful outing by Royal starting pitcher Clayton Edwards, who threw four innings, giving up one run and six base hits. He also walked two batters.

"I couldn’t really hit my spots today," Edwards said. "I was throwing into the wind—the ball was cutting too much. But it was a decent outing and I’ll take the win."

Edwards improved his season record to 3-0 with a 1.55 ERA with the victory. He has struck out 19 batters in 18 innings of work.

The Highlanders answered right back in the bottom of the third when Kellen Fink’s fielder’s choice groundout scored Kevin Harrington for a 3-1 lead. Later in the inning, Matt Zabel’s double to center brought in two more runs and the rout was on.

Zabel pulled up lame rounding first on the play and was taken out of the game as a precautionary measure.

"It’s a strained hamstring that I’ve been nursing," Zabel said. "It was a little wet out there and I hit a soft patch and felt it tweak just a bit…I’m not too worried about it."

First baseman D.J. Smith knocked in Boscarino and Harrington with a double in the fourth inning to make the score 7-1 in favor of the Highlanders.

With their opponent down six runs going into the bottom of the fifth, Royal applied the knockout blow. In a four-batter sequence, Boscarino hit a towering drive to dead center that plated two runners. Blackwell followed with a no-doubt homerun to left center. Smith made it back-to-back longballs with another shot over the left-centerfield wall. When the carnage had ended, the Highlanders were staked to a 13-1 lead.

"We just tried to put the ball in play and get some runs the easy way, by playing small ball if we had to," Harrington said. "Fortunately we have a few guys that can hit the ball out of the yard and they produced today."

Grady Ihnat pitched the final two innings for Royal, striking out three and not allowing a hit.

CHS first-year head coach Bret Saberhagen was favorably impressed with Royal’s overall game.

"They are a well-coached team," the 1985 World Series MVP and two-time Cy Young Award winner said. "They are solid top to bottom, but we helped them out by making a lot of mistakes today."

Royal plays a doubleheader Saturday against Nordhoff High in Ojai. The first game begins at 11 AM.