Tigers beat Jerome, Caldwell

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

The Mountain Home Tigers came away with two wins in four games last week, splitting a pair of conference games, and splitting a doubleheader with Jerome.

Kuna 5

Mtn Home 2

The Tigers opened conference play at home against Kuna last Tuesday, dropping a 5-2 contest.

The Kavemen jumped on Tiger starter Brian Fields for three runs in the first inning. Fields settled down and gave up just one more run in four innings, but Mountain Home, who out-hit the Kavemen, left seven runners on base, and were never able to break it open.

The Tigers scored their two runs in the fourth, on a two-run single by David Pacheco that cut the Kuna lead to 3-2, but the Kavemen added single runs in the fifth and sixth.

Brett Young and David Pacheco both had two hits for the Tigers, who also had a triple by Andrew Grodi and a double by Alan Lawler. David Wise, Dillon Barresi and Jacob Dunn also had hits.

Brian Fields suffered the loss, working into the fifth inning, giving up four runs on four hits while striking out three and walking six. Jacob Dunn pitched the final three innings, giving up a run on three hits.

"We're making strides, but just not getting over the hump, so it is a tough loss right now," said Mountain Home Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore after the game.

"You want to feel hopeful and complimentary and all those things, but you also recognize there were moments in the game when we should have taken control and we didn't -- and that's the guys and the coaches -- I don't blame the guys for any of it. There were some clutch calls I made that didn't pan out, so it goes both ways there.

"We had some nice plays in the field, and obviously, we've come a long way since those first games of the season, so we're happy with that, and we definitely want to count our positives, but until we get some things figured out base running-wise, and guys start hitting in the clutch a little bit more, we've got some work to do for sure."

Mtn Home 8

Caldwell 6

The Tigers pulled off a big upset Friday, battling to beat highly rated Caldwell by two.

Caldwell jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but a three-run third, keyed by an RBI triple by Brett Young and a two-run double by Jacob Dunn, put the Tigers up 3-2.

Mountain Home scored three more in the fourth, getting an RBI single by Michael Hinton and a two-run single by Brett Young to go up 6-2.

The Cougars rallied in the fifth to tie the game at 6-6, chasing Mountain Home starter Michael Hobgood, but Jacob Dunn and Andrew Grodi shut down Caldwell the rest of the game.

Mountain Home regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth, Alan Lawler singling in David Wise who had reached on an error to lead off the inning. A sacrifice fly to deep left center field by Jacob Dunn plated Young, who had walked ahead of Lawler's hit.

Caldwell managed to load the bases against Andrew Grodi in the top of the seventh after two were out, but the Tiger right-hander got Aaron Stone, who had two hits earlier in the game, to ground out to Alan Lawler at first to end the game.

"I'm ecstatic after that win!" said Coach DeVore after the game. "That (Caldwell)'s a team that was 9-4 coming in and they're supposed to be the top dog in our conference, and we just gave them some humility tonight, which they gave it to us all last year, so it's returning a favor for sure. We didn't start out that well, but we got going and got some momentum, and it's amazing what a little momentum can do."

Brett Young had three hits, including a double and a triple and drove in three runs. Jacob Dunn had a double and three RBIs. Alan Lawler and Michael Hinton both had RBI singles, and David Wise and Brian Fields also had hits.

Andrew Grodi picked up the win pitching the final two innings, giving up just two hits while striking out one and hitting two. Michael Hobgood pitched into the fifth, striking out five, walking four and hitting a batter. Jacob Dunn gave up two hits in an inning of work in between Hobgood and Grodi.

Mtn Home 14, 15

Jerome 15, 10

It proved to be a long day with lots of runs scored Saturday when these two Tiger teams got together. On the day, there were a total of 54 runs scored, 42 base hits, 28 strikeouts, 33 walks and 14 hit batters.

In game one, Mountain Home led 2-1 after one, only to see Jerome score three in the top of the second to go up 4-2. Mountain Home scored four in the bottom half, to regain the lead, 6-4. Jerome regained the lead, with four runs in the top of the third to lead, 8-6.

A seven-run third for Mountain Home made it 13-8 in favor of the local Tigers.

It stayed that way until the fifth, when Jerome scored six runs to go up 14-13, but Mountain Home took advantage of an error to tie the game at 14-14 in the bottom half of the fifth.

Neither team scored in the sixth or seventh, so it went to extra innings.

In the top of the eighth, Jerome took advantage of some throwing errors to plate the go-ahead run.

Mountain Home was shut down in the bottom of the eighth as Jerome won 15-14.

Alan Lawler and Andrew Grodi both had three hits in the ball game, Lawler, a triple and three RBIs, Grodi, two doubles and an RBI. Brian Fields had two hits and an RBI, and Sam Cisners had a two-run single.

Four Tigers pitched in the game, Michael Hobgood, who pitched the final two innings, suffered the loss.

In game two, Mountain Home led 3-1 after three, but a five-run fourth put Jerome in the lead, 6-3. They added two more in the top of the fifth, but Mountain Home scored three in the bottom half to cut the lead to 8-6.

Jerome added two more in the top of the sixth to make it 10-6, but the local Tigers sent 13 batters to the plate in the bottom half of the sixth, scoring nine runs to make it 15-10 Mountain Home. Brett Young, who pitched the final three innings, shut down Jerome in the seventh to earn the win.

Alan Lawler had four hits, including a double and a triple and had three RBIs. Brett Grodi and Brett Young both had three hits, Grodi a double and four RBIs, a double and one RBI. Andrew Grodi had two hits including a double and drove in a run. David Wise had two hits and an RBI, and Jacob Dunn had one hit and knocked in three runs.

Although happy to come away with a split, Coach DeVore thought they should have had a sweep.

"A majority of their runs, especially in the second game, were guys who had either been hit by a pitch, or who were walked, and in the first game, that was a huge difference as well. If you took away some of those things, we played a heck of a day.

"We hardly had any errors on the day. Some of our hitters just absolutely came alive, so there were a lot of positives, but at the same time, you tend to recognize the negatives more, and we put guys in base that didn't deserve to be there.

"But again, there were some big step ups, too. Brett and Andrew Grodi hit the heck out of the ball. So did Alan Lawler and Brett Yong, and everyone got to play today and contribute, so that was good to see."

The Tigers were at Bishop Kelly in conference play yesterday, and travel to Emmett on Friday for another conference game. After the efforts against Jerome, Coach DeVore was looking forward to getting back into conference play.

"If we can hit like this and if we can get a little bit more from our pitchers, I think we can beat anyone in our conference. We showed that against Caldwell on Friday night, and I'm looking forward to our games from here on out."