Tigers' bad luck continues after Skyview, Kuna losses

The Mountain Home Tigers dropped three games last week to see their current losing streak hit five, dropping a game to Skyview and losing two to league-leading Kuna.

Skyview 11, Mountain Home 7

A six-run fifth inning proved to be the difference at Skyview last Wednesday as the Hawks outscored the Tigers 11-7 in conference baseball.

The Hawks jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, taking advantage of a two-run fielding error. Mountain Home got a run in the second inning to make it 3-1.

Neither team scored again until the sixth, when the Hawks chased Tiger starter Ronnie Young with six runs to go up 9-1.

Mountain Home scored three runs in the top of the sixth, but the Hawks countered with two in the bottom half of the inning to make it 11-4.

The Tigers rallied with three runs in seventh and had the bases full and the tying run at the plate before it ended 11-7.

"We just sort of hung around, but we kind of lack the killer instinct," said Tiger head baseball coach Mark Cotton.

"Ronnie (Young) threw well enough to win. It's kind of the same old story with our pitchers -- they're throwing great, but defensively, we had some letdowns early and they jumped out in front and we couldn't bat or hit to keep an inning going.

"It really comes down to our defense if we're going to put ourselves in a position to win," Cotton said.

Skyview only outhit the Tigers 9-7. Alex Rodriguez led the Tigers with two hits, including a double and an RBI. Danny Brescia, Anthony Castillo, Jake Hennessey, Skyler Podesek and Skylar Quintal also had hits. Quintal had two RBI, Podesek one, and Brescia had a double.

Ronnie Young suffered the loss to fall to 1-1 on the season.

Kuna 13, Mountain Home 3

Kuna 12, Mountain Home 2

The Mountain Home Tigers dropped both conference games to Kuna last week, losing 13-3 in Mountain Home on Thursday and 12-2 at Kuna on Friday, both games going five innings.

In Thursday's game at Mountain Home, both teams scored two runs in the first inning, but Kuna, which banged out 13 hits in the game, struck for five in the second, two in the fourth and four in the fifth to end the game 13-3 by the 10-run rule.

"They're a good hitting ball team," said Coach Cotton after the game.

"They pitched it well. We got a lot of runners on base, but our biggest problem was we haven't been able to get guys across when they're in scoring position. If we did that, in this game, it would have been a lot closer. We had our opportunities, we just weren't able to do it offensively. Defensively, we weren't as bad as we've been in the past couple weeks, so hopefully that's a good sign."

The Tigers had just five hits but left nine runners on base for the game, including having the bases loaded twice.

Alex Rodriguez and Skylar Quintal both had RBI-singles and Ronnie Young had a double. Jake Hennessey and Joe Gutierrez also had hits and Skyler Podesek had an RBI.

Jared Day suffered the loss to fall to 1-4 on the season.

In Friday's game at Kuna, the Kavemen jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one, scored two in the third and three in the fourth and fifth to end the game by the 10-run mercy rule, 12-2.

"We've got to get better in all three phases of the game," Coach Cotton said, "Offensively, I think we're getting a little bit better. Defensively, we're poor -- we've got to get better. We've got to get better on the mound, we've got to get better in the dugout, we've got to get better in every single phase of the game, and we're not doing that right now.

"If we can find a way in the next week to gain some momentum going into district, we'll have a chance, but if we play next week like we've played this week, it's going to be over in a hurry."

Jake Hennessey had three hits for the Tigers. Anthony Castillo had a double and Gage Curtis, Ronnie Young and Joe Gutierrez also had hits. Young had an RBI, as did Skylar Quintal. Alex Rodriguez suffered the loss to drop to 1-5 on the season.

The Tigers dropped to 2-10 in conference play and 6-14 overall. They hosted Middleton Tuesday and close out their regular season schedule today (Wednesday) at Middleton.

The district tourney starts this Saturday.