Valencia won its second fall game the unglamorous way: four hits all morning, and a defense that treated every Royal baserunner as a personal insult in a 4-1, eight-inning win at Royal.

The Highlanders' second-inning run, a single, a steal, and a double, was all they got, and not for lack of traffic. Valencia's defense recorded four signature outs: Kyle Josing started an 8-2-1 relay that cut a runner down at the plate in the third, Jack Yamamura threw out a base stealer to end the fourth, Yamamura started a 2-5-1-6 pickoff rundown that erased a runner at third in the fifth, and Kade Breech turned a tag-and-throw 5-3 double play to end the game.

The offense made its four hits count. Dylan Lapa led off the fourth with a triple and scored on Santino Cascione's groundout; Cole DeYoung doubled and was forced home by Ryan Nguyen's bases-loaded walk; an error cashed Francisco Velazquez Jr. in the fifth; and Zach Davis, aboard on a hit-by-pitch, scored on Nguyen's sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Five pitchers shared the work: Tennysen Enneking's clean first, Charlie Romanelli's two innings through the raid-repelling third, Charles Goodman's two with a pair of strikeouts, and Brett Cormany and Tee Intharachalit closing out an eighth that ended on the double play.