Tigers blow chance for league tie

The win streak snapped at two with Friday's loss at Kuna by the Tiger boys baseball team.

Mountain Home 6

Glenns Ferry 3

The Mountain Home Tigers bounced back from one of their worst losses in the baseball program to beat a good Glenns Ferry Pilot team 6-3 on April 19 at Mountain Home.

With their 25-1 loss at Wood River two days earlier fresh in their minds, the Tigers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning without the benefit of a base hit, taking advantage of an error and a walk and a sacrifice fly by Brett Young that scored David Wise.

The lead held up until the top of the fourth, when three straight Mountain Home errors helped lead to three Pilot runs to give them a 3-1 lead.

Back came the Tigers in the bottom of the fourth to score two runs to tie the game at 3-3. Then in the bottom of the sixth, an error and four straight hits helped plate three more runs, what proved to be the game-winner coming on a pinch-hit RBI single by Michael DesPres.

"I'm really happy for (Brian) Fields. He got his first win, and he comes out and throws strikes in the seventh, and that's good, because his tendency is to get a little wild the longer he goes, so I'm proud of him," said Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore after the game.

"I'm also proud of Mike DesPres. He hasn't had a lot of playing time for us lately, and he comes up and gets a big hit to give us the lead, so I'm happy for him, but there's still a lot of things we've got to improve if we're going to get to where we want to be."

Brian Fields struck out seven, walked three and hit a batter in going the distance for the win, evening his season record at 1-1.

Alan Lawler and Jacob Dunn both had doubles for Mountain Home. Michael DesPres had an RBI single, Brett Grodi had a hit and an RBI, and David Pacheco, David Wise and Dillon Barresi also had hits. Brett Young had two RBIs.

Mountain Home 10

Vallivue 8

The Tigers won their second straight game last Tuesday at home, holding off the Vallivue Falcons 10-8 in SI. 4A conference play.

After Vallivue scored a run in the top of the first, the tigers answered with two in the bottom half, Brett Young's double knocking in one, and Jacob Dunn's single plating Young.

A single by Brian Fields made it 3-1 Tigers after three, but Vallivue came back to tie it at 3-3 in the top of the fourth.

As they did the day before, Mountain Home responded, this time getting a two-run single by Brett Young, a two-run triple by Alan Lawler, and an RBI single by Jacob Dunn to take an 8-3 lead through four.

Vallivue got to Tiger starter Michael Hobgood for four runs in the fifth to make it 8-7 Mountain Home.

Sam Cisners single in one of two runs scored by the Tigers in the sixth, as they upped their lead to 10-7.

Jacob Dunn pitched the final two innings for Mountain Home to get the save, as the Tigers won 10-8.

"(Brian) Fields made an awesome defensive play there in the sixth that set the tempo for us," said Coach DeVore after the game. "The guys stepped up big when they needed to. We didn't play a flawless game by any stretch of the imagination. (Michael) Hobgood didn't have his best outing, although he did throw okay. (Jacob) Dunn came in and did another great job for us, and that's something that is priceless on a team, the guy that comes in and throws strikes and gets ground balls, and then when you have players like Fields out there stepping up, it obviously makes a huge difference.

"And one through nine, I thought out guys had good at bats today, and (Sam) Cisners comes up with a big RBI there in the latter part of the game, and really, we saw a lot of the guys contribute with the bats, so it was an all-around good effort, and I'm happy because it puts us above 500 in conference."

Brett Young continued his torrid hitting in conference play with a double and a single and three RBIs. In five conference games, Young is 11 for 17 for a .647 batting average, three doubles, two triples and a home run, while driving in 10 RBIs.

Jacob Dunn had two hits and two RBIs, Alan Lawler had a triple and two RBIs, Sam Cisners had two hits and an RBI, Brett Grodi had two hits, Brian Fields an RBI single, and David Pacheco also had a hit.

The win evened Michael Hobgood's record at 2-2 on the season.

Kuna 6

Mountain Home 2

With Kuna at 4-1 in conference play, and Mountain Home a game back at 3-2, the Tigers had a chance to tie Kuna for the conference lead Friday at Kuna, and started well, scoring twice in the first inning, but were shut down the rest of the way, as the Kavemen came back to win it 6-2.

Mountain Home's first run in the first came on back-to-back doubles by David Pacheco and Brett Young.

Their other run came on a throwing error.

Kuna got to Tiger starter Brian Fields for five runs in the second.

"Obviously I'm disappointed because it was a big game for us as we had the chance to tie Kuna for the conference lead," said Coach DeVore after the game.

"We started out well hitting the ball, we got three hits in a row there in the first inning and I was feeling good about it, but then when they scored five runs in the second, we just seemed to lose our focus the rest of the way."

Jacob Dunn had two doubles in the game, David Pacheco and Brett Young also had doubles, Young an RBI. Alan Lawler and Dillon Barresi also had hits.

Brian Fields suffered the loss, giving up six runs on eight hits, just four of the runs earned. He struck out three, walked four and hit one batter.

Jacob Dunn pitched a scoreless sixth.

Despite the loss, DeVore believes his Tigers are still in the hunt in conference play.

"We're still in it (the conference race), and our goal from the first of the season is to finish in the top two and get that first round bye, and we certainly still have that possibility, we've just got to regroup and go forward."

The Tigers took a 3-3 league record and 6-10 overall mark to Caldwell yesterday (Tuesday). They are home against Bishop Kelly tomorrow (Thursday), and host Glenns Ferry on Monday and Emmett on Tuesday.

They close out their regular season schedule on May 6 at Vallivue.