Tigers sweep Skyview

Home or away, it made no difference to the Mountain Home Tigers, as they beat the Skyview Hawks twice last week in SIC 4A baseball action.

Mountain Home 9

Skyview 5

The Mountain Home Tigers took advantage of Skyview errors to down the Hawks 9-5 last Thursday in conference baseball in Mountain Home.

A Mountain Home error led to two runs to help the Hawks jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning off Tiger starter Michael Hobgood.

The Tigers then got three runs in the second, all unearned to take a 3-2 lead.

Mountain Home scored five more runs in the fifth, all with two out, as they stretched their lead to 9-2.

Two Mountain Home errors in the seventh led to three Skyview runs, but Mike Anderson came on in relief and got the final two outs to preserve the 9-5 Tiger victory, Mountain Home's first conference win of the season.

"Obviously conference games are where it's at," said Tiger baseball coach Trevor DeVore after the game. "I told the guys before the game that focusing on our overall record doesn't get us anywhere. what matters the most is how we finish up in conference. It (the win over Skyview) is a win, but I'm not satisfied at all with where we're at, and I don't want the guys to be satisfied either.

"We definitely turned it on after the first inning, and I was happy with that, but we're a team that still has a lot to learn, and we're not aggressive enough at the plate.

"Defensively, we didn't shut the door there when we needed to there in the seventh, and those are things that by the end of the season, just can't happen, so hopefully, we'll continue to improve.

"I saw some good things out of our bats. Brett Grodi hit as well as anyone has for us today and hit the ball hard, and Mike Anderson coming in closing the game out when we really needed him to, that was huge for us."

Brett Grodi and Chris Rau both had two hits for the Tigers, Rau knocked in two runs and Grodi brought in one with a double. Chase Bitterman had an RBI single, and Brian Fields had a hit and an RBI, and Aaron Swartz had a double.

Michael Hobgood improved to 2-0 on the season, going six and a third innings, with four of the five runs unearned. He scattered five hits, struck out six, walked one and hit three batters.

Mike Anderson recorded a strikeout in his two-thirds of an inning.

Mountain Home 7

Skyview 0

This year's conference baseball schedule is played on Thursdays and Fridays, with the games home and away against the same teams. Last Friday the Tigers went to Skyview to face the Hawks on their field. Mountain Home got another masterful performance on the mound by Michael DesPres as the Tigers won, 7-0.

The third inning was the big inning for the Tigers, and once again they took advantage of errors -- three in the inning -- to score six runs.

That was more than enough for DesPres, who mixed his pitches to strike out 10 and limit the Hawks to six hits.

"My arm felt real good today," said DesPres in comments after the game. "I felt real confident about pitching against this team (Skyview), because we'd seen them yesterday, and I saw Hobbie (Michael Hobgood) pitch against them and I just came out with a lot of confidence."

DesPres, who was brought up off the JV team during the latter part of the season last year, and pitched and won a complete game victory over Kuna for the District Championship, now has thrown two straight shutouts, a fact that he downplayed in the post-game interview.

"That's not even in my head. I'm not thinking about shutouts or anything, I'm just thinking about going out there and throwing and trying to win."

"Michael DesPres was awesome tonight for sure!" said Coach DeVore after the game. "Right now he's got 14 scoreless innings under his belt, and I just can't believe how amazing that kid is, and it's to his credit, as I don't know anything about coaching pitching, so a lot of that stuff was him making those adjustments, knowing the game and having the desire to get better every time he comes out.

"There were other guys I was impressed with as well. Chase Bitterman has just come an incredible distance from the beginning of the season after not playing his freshman year. For a sophomore he really has sheered up our outfield defensively, and he's really become aggressive at the plate.

"Chris Rau, for a freshman, I'm very impressed with what he's done the last couple of games.

"Lot's of highlights today, and we're winning ball games now, but we're not even close to where we need to be, which I think is encouraging."

Chase Bitterman had three hits and drove in two runs. Chris Rau had an RBI single. Brian Fields had a double, and Aaron Swartz and Brett Grodi also had hits, and Jacob Hiler had an RBI.

Michael DesPres improved to 2-2 on the season.

The win improved Mountain Home to 2-1 in conference play, and 4-6 overall.

The Tigers have a busy week. they were at Nampa for a make-up game yesterday (Tuesday), travel to Emmett tomorrow (Thursday) host Emmett on Friday, and host Minico on Saturday.

"It'll be a busy week, but hopefully, we'll be able to get some guys some playing time," said DeVore. "We need a busy week, to be honest, because as well as Michael Hobgood and Michael DesPres have been pitching, our bullpen hasn't got enough work, so this will give us a chance to really see what some of the other guys can do, because guys like Brett Young and Brian Fields and Aaron Swartz, there's plenty of guys that can throw for us and throw well, and they're just not getting innings and they deserve some time.

"Actually a busy week early in the season is somewhat of a beneficial situation, although it can get ugly, too, that's for sure."