Tiger nine wins three, beats Kuna and Vallivue

The Mountain Home Tigers won three games last week to extend their win streak to four straight.

Tigers 9

Vallivue 4

The Tigers started the week off on the right foot, taking a 9-4 non-conference win at Vallivue against the Falcons on Tuesday.

Mountain Home scored two runs in the top of the first. Vallivue got one back in the bottom of the first and tied it with another run in the second.

The Tigers scored three times in the fifth to go up, 5-2. Vallivue got two of them back in the sixth to come within one, 5-4. Mountain Home scored four in the top of the seventh to make it a 9-4 final.

"Gabe (Anderson) threw a good game for us, and we had some key hitting late in the game, but as of late, we're starting to hit the ball a little bit better and our record is starting to show that a little bit," said Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore of the Vallivue win.

Chris Rau and Brock Morris both had three hits and an RBI. Cal Vivier had two hits, Jordan Cisna had a hit and two RBIs, and Ricky Lee and Ricky Baker had hits and RBIs, Lee had a triple, Baker a double.

Zane Bundy also had a hit, and Jake Hiler had an RBI. Gabe Anderson threw a complete game, striking out five and giving up six hits, and improved to 2-1 on the season.

Tigers 3

Kuna 1

The Tigers won their third straight ball game Thursday at Kuna, downing the Kavemen 3-1 in conference baseball.

Mountain Home's Chris Rau and Kuna's Andrew DeForest were locked in a scoreless pitching duel until the Tigers took advantage of a couple of errors in the fifth, coupled with a couple of hits, to score three runs.

Kuna finally scored in the sixth, helped out by a error. The Kavemen had runners on second and third in their last at bat, but Chris Rau got a ground ball to end the inning and the ball game.

Coach DeVore was pleased with the win.

"It's a big win for us, obviously, a conference win, and getting above .500 for the first time this year in conference. It probably wasn't our best effort -- it certainly was by (Chris) Rau, he threw a heck of a game for us -- I felt like it was a game where we left a lot of guys in scoring position early on, and we probably could have assumed control earlier, but the clutch hits, good base running and guys came through.

"Obviously when Cal Vivier leads the seventh off with a triple, we need to get him in, but those things are going to happen, and on the flip side, the same thing happened to Kuna, too.

"It sounds like we were a bit too relaxed out here -- relaxed is good, but with only five games now left in the season, we need to have a little more urgency."

Zane Bundy and Brock Morris both had two hits, Cal Vivier had a triple, Jordan Cisna an RBI double, Jake Hiler an RBI single, and Alex Hoffman also had a hit.

Chris Rau picked up his first win of the season, improving to 1-2. He struck out six and scattered eight hits.

Tigers 11

Kuna 1

A seven-run second inning helped the Tigers to an 11-1 five-inning win over Kuna Friday at Mountain Home.

Eric Christiansen had a two-run triple, Jordan Cisna a two-run single and Chris Rau an RBI single in the seven-run second inning. Cisna added a double later, and Jake Hiler had two doubles, the last one ending the game in the bottom of the fifth by the 10-run rule.

Zane Bundy had an RBI double, Ricky Lee had a double and an RBI, Alex Hoffman had a single and RBI, and Cal Vivier also had a hit.

Hiler scattered three hits, striking out six and walking four while improving to 5-3 on the season.

"Jake (Hiler) threw well -- he didn't have his best stuff, but he still threw well for us. It's amazing how confident the kids play behind him," said Coach DeVore after the game.

"We had a lot of good hitting. Zane Bundy's continuing to hit well for us, Jake had some huge hits for us today and Eric Christiansen gets a big hit, and a lot of other guys that are just getting steady now -- Ricky Lee, Brock Morris, Cal Vivier, Jordan Cisna -- are consistently putting the ball in play for us now.

"It's encouraging, we're on a bit of a roll, and we want to keep moving up the standings, and this is the way you do it, and with only four games left, now you've got to keep playing hard."

The win improved the Tigers to 11-8 on the season and 6-4 in league play. With Skyview sweeping Nampa this week, the Tigers moved ahead of the Bulldogs into fourth place in the standings, behind Columbia, Bishop Kelly and Skyview.

The Tigers go to Middleton on Thursday and host Middleton on Friday in this week's conference games, both starting at 5 p.m.

"We don't want to look past Middleton, even through they're having a little bit of a rough season, because we need those two wins," said Coach DeVore.

"Then if we go into those games against Nampa, we can really determine our own seed for the district tournament if we can get after those guys, so it's a good roll to be on.

"Guys like Jake have thrown well for us all year, and Chris Rau and Gabe Anderson have really kept us in games, and we haven't really needed to use our bull pen as much as we may need to down the stretch. It's been an impressive effort on their part, and the rest of the game, the defense and offense, is finally catching up to those guys."