Tigers on a roll, sweep two games from Nampa

The Mountain Home Tigers continued their season climb, sweeping two conference games from Nampa last week.

Tigers 14

Nampa 8

The Mountain Home Tigers battled back from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Nampa Bulldogs, 14-8, last Thursday in Nampa.

Nampa's Trevor Morris limited the Tigers to just one hit in four innings of work as the Bulldogs built up a 4-0 lead.

The Tigers struck for two runs against Nampa reliever Drew Evans in the fifth to cut the Bulldog lead to 4-2, but the Bulldogs got one run back in the bottom half to lead, 5-2.

Mountain Home greeted Justin Seward, Nampa's third pitcher of the night with seven straight hits in the top of the sixth, and the Tigers scored seven runs to take a 9-5 lead. Nampa scored three unanswered runs in the bottom half to creep back within one, 9-8, after six.

The Tigers continued to pound Seward in the seventh, and scored five more runs before they were retired to up their lead to 14-8. Chris Rau struck out the side in the seventh as the Tigers won 14-8.

"Lots of kids up and down the lineup got some hits," said Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore in radio comments after the game. "Joe Poseley had a big hit, (Ricky) Lee had a big double with the bases loaded. Brock Morris' first game on varsity, he played extremely well at short and at the plate. Chris Rau didn't have his best stuff tonight. He wasn't getting some of his curve ball calls that he normally gets, and was getting behind to a lot of batters, and guys stepped up. There is some disappointment there.

"They had their ace (Trevor Morris) in and getting the best of us there, but when he came out, suddenly our eyes got huge and we're ready to hit, and that's an adjustment that obviously needs to get made if we're going to make a serious bid for state. We've got to be able to face guys that are number one, and that's what Trevor is for them, and we didn't do a very good job going up against him. That's something that we can definitely learn from.

"I'm proud of the kids efforts and I'm extremely proud of the way the guys stayed in the game and came back from a 4-0 deficit, but at the same time, we made mistakes today that could have been costly -- three unearned runs in the sixth, and we had a base-running mistake early when we tried to push across a run, things that we've got to continue to get better at as we rise above .500 in conference."

Ricky Lee, Jake Hiler, Chris Rau, Cal Vivier and Brock Morris all had two hits, Lee had a double and three RBIs, Hiler a double and two RBIs, Rau had two RBIs, and Vivier had one. Joe Poseley had a two-run double, and John Murdorf and Zane Bundy also had hits. Chris Rau went the distance for the win, giving up just five hits and two earned runs while striking out nine. He improved to 3-3 on the season.

Tigers 2

Nampa 0

Jake Hiler improved to 5-2 on the season, throwing a two-hit 2-0 shutout at Tiger Field last Friday. Hiler struck out seven and did not walk or hit a batter.

The Tigers' two runs came in the fifth inning as Ricky Lee beat out the throw to first to avoid an inning-ending double play that scored Derek Thorton. Lee then came home later on a throwing error on a play at first.

"Jake Hiler just continues to throw amazingly well," said Coach DeVore after the game. "He kept the hitters off balance at all times, and it's really just because he throws all of his pitches at any count. When guys are thinking fastball, he's throwing off-speed pitches and likewise. There's no rhyme or reason to the way he throws right now, because he can throw for strikes with all of them."

The Tigers had just three hits off three Nampa pitchers. Chri Rau had a triple and Jake Hiler and Tyson Sessions also had hits.

The win was the Tigers seventh straight conference win, as they improved to 7-5 in conference. They improved to 9-13 overall.

Mountain Home played their final home game of the season last night, hosting Skyview in conference play. They close out their regular season schedule today at Skyview. The District III 4A Tournament starts Monday at Kuna and Nampa.