Tiger nine needs extra innings to pick up first win

The Mountain Home Tiger baseball team picked up its first win of the young season Thursday night with an 11-inning 3-2 win over Emmett at home, and followed that up with a come-from-behind 8-6 win over the Huskies Friday at Emmett.

Tigers 3

Emmett 2

(11 innings)

Jordan Cisna's two-out single drove in Ricky Baker with the winning run as the Tigers edged Emmett, 3-2, Thursday evening in conference baseball at Mountain Home.

Ricky Lee gave Mountain Home a 2-0 lead with a two-run double in the fifth inning. Emmett scored single runs in the sixth and seventh innings to send it to extra innings. Neither team was able to score until Cisna's game-winner in the 11th.

"We still have a lot of things to work on, but it certainly was an impressive effort on a lot of guys' part," said Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore.

"Chris (Rau) and Jake (Hiler) threw outstanding games for us, and kept us in the game with the number of strikeouts, keeping the Emmett batters off balance.

"In fact, there was a bases loaded with no-out situation in I think the 10th inning, and somehow Jake was able to fight his way out of it, getting a pop-up to the shortstop and then on a squeeze play, getting the guy out at home, and the next guy to ground out to him.

"There were a lot of impressive efforts. (Jordan) Cisna came up huge with the game-winning hit. Ricky Lee broke out with that double, and he hit a couple balls in that game that would have been out of any other park, and also Ricky Baker's starting to come alive, so there were a lot of positives for sure.

"The last three games I'm really impressed with our defense. Really, the two components to our game that we've got to perfect is our base running and our hitting, but we're getting there, so it's encouraging."

The Tigers doubled their season output of hits with nine against the Huskies. Ricky Baker had three hits, Jordan Cisna had two, including the game-winner, Ricky Lee had a two-run double, Alex Hoffman, Eric Christiansen and Chris Rau also had hits.

Rau went seven innings on the mound, giving up the two runs while striking out 11. Jake Hiler pitched the final four scoreless innings to get the win, evening his record at 1-1. He allowed just one hit and struck out five.

Tigers 8

Huskies 6

Friday at Emmett the Tigers overcame a 5-0 deficit to come back and beat the Huskies, 8-6.

Emmett got to Tiger starter Gabe Anderson for five runs in the first three innings while Husky starter Matt Reinstra was holding Mountain Home without a hit.

The Tigers finally put together three hits in the fourth inning to score three runs, and got three more hits and tied the game at 5-5 in the fifth.

Mountain Home scored two more in the sixth to take the lead before Mike Hull came in to end the inning. They added an insurance run in the seventh to make it 8-5.

Jake Hiler relieved Anderson in the sixth and pitched a scoreless sixth. The Huskies got to Hiler for two hits and a run in the seventh to make it an 8-6 final.

"I'm proud of the comeback effort," said coach DeVore after the game. "Early on they were hitting the ball and it looked like a different Emmett team from last night.

"Gabe (Anderson) settled down and threw a heck of a game for us after some early jitters, which are expected, that's his first conference varsity start, but he settled down and deserved the win there, he threw excellent, and I'm real proud of that effort.

"Obviously, Jake (Hiler) coming in and being able to close the door for us was huge, but a lot of key hits, Chris Rau hitting the ball like we needed him to in the four-hole, getting some RBIs. Still some tentative spots in the lineup, but early in the season, to see this much improvement in the course of a week, I'm encouraged at this point.

Gabe Anderson picked up the win, with Jake Hiler getting the save.

Chris Rau and Gabe Anderson both had two hits, Rau had a double and drove in three runs. Jake Hiler and Eric Christiansen both had RBI-singles, Ricky Baker and Brock Morris had hits, Morris an RBI, and John Murdorf also drove in a run.

The win improved the Tigers to 2-3 overall, and 2-2 in conference play. They play four games starting tomorrow in the Buck's Bag Spring Classic, opening tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. against Columbia. Friday they play Centennial at 3:30 p.m. They play Coeur d'Alene at 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning, and Twin Falls at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. All their games will be played at Centennial High School.

"We have a tough pod," said Coach DeVore. "We have some tough 5A schools coming in to play us, Twin Falls and Coeur D'Alene, and we have the host Centennial playing over on their field, and Columbia, the returning 4A State champs, so it's going to be a good time to get some other pitchers some opportunity to get some work out there.

"We're going to bring some JV guys up to fill out the roster a little bit. I'm excited for it, and we use the Bucks Bags to get better every year, and it showed last year. After the Bucks Bags we finally started putting things together, and when you play some of the top teams in the state it challenges you to improve your game, so we're looking forward to it."