Tigers to play for district title Friday

All season long Mountain Home Tiger head baseball coach Travis DeVore has stressed the importance of learning from the ups and downs of the regular season and building towards the post season in order to get to state.

Coach DeVore thinks last week's sweep by the Nampa Bulldogs may have been the turning point.

"I was really upset after our Nampa games last week. I felt like we could have finished third if we'd swept them. We lost two close games and were really undisciplined doing it, and that's the first thing we talked about after that game (at Nampa). The guys ran a bit for it, and we talked about it again on Monday, and we said it's going to end and we're going to be a focused team, and I said, 'I'm not even going to punish any more, it's going to be you guys choosing or it's not going to happen.'

"I've got to give it to them, they've come out much more focused, and positive and showing they're growing as a team, and obviously the results are showing that, too."

What showed through last week was first, a lopsided win over Glenns Ferry to close out the season, followed by two impressive upset wins over Skyview and Nampa in the District Tournament, meaning a date with Bishop Kelly this Friday for the District Championship, and a berth in next week's 4A State Tournament in Nampa.

Mountain Home 19

Glenns Ferry 3

Last Tuesday's game at Glenns Ferry came about when weather caused the cancellation of non-conference games for both teams earlier in the season, and both wanted another game before they headed into district play.

The Pilots, who this past weekend secured a berth at the 2A State Baseball Tournament in Orofino next week, took a 2-1 lead over the Tigers after one inning.

Mountain Home scored five runs in the second inning to take the lead.

An 11-run fifth for the Tigers led to a 19-3 final, the game going just five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.

The Tigers pounded out 13 hits in the win, with Aaron Swartz, Bret Young and Jake Hiler each getting three hits. Chris Rau had a two-run double and a three-run home run to drive in five runs.

Rau also picked up the win, giving up just two hits and striking out seven.

"It was about time I got a win," Rau said in radio comments after the game. "It's about time we stepped it up at the plate with our hitting, too. We haven't been hitting that well, but we came out fired up today. Hopefully we can take that in district."

Michael DesPres also had a three-run home run, to go with his four walks and four runs scored, and Dave Anderson also had a hit for the Tigers.

"We came out hitting!" said Coach DeVore after the game. "I hope it carries on over into Thursday, because obviously, a little momentum going into District will be nice."

And it did.

Mountain Home 11

Skyview Hawks 6

Mountain Home went into the District III 4A Baseball Tournament seeded seventh, and opened against the number two seed, Skyview, at Vallivue last Thursday.

The Hawks had swept the Tigers in the first two games of the season back in March.

This game was anybody's game until the Tigers took control in the fifth. Mountain Home scored a run in the top of the first, but Skyview scored two in the bottom half to lead, 2-1. The Tigers regained it, 3-2, in the top of the second, only to see Skyview score two in the bottom half, to regain the lead, 4-3.

After Dave Anderson's ground-out tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the third, T.J. Miller followed with an RBI-single to give the Tigers a 5-4 lead.

Skyview scored an unearned run in the fourth to tie the game at 5-5.

In the top of the fifth, back came the Tigers. After Jake Hiler led off the inning with a triple, T.J. Miller came to the plate with Hiler at third and one out. The Tiger shortstop, who had just two hits in 23 plate appearances coming into the game, came through with another clutch single and the Tigers had the lead, 6-5.

"It felt great to just finally get a chance to hit and get the hits and the RBIs! It felt great!" said Miller, in radio comments after the game.

Two batters later, Bret Young doubled in two more runs, and the Tigers led, 8-5, a lead they would not give up the rest of the way.

The Hawks narrowed the gap to 8-6 in the bottom half of the fifth, but Mountain Home took advantage of walks, hit-batters and errors and timely hits to score three more, and stretch the lead to 11-6.

Michael DesPres picked up his sixth win of the season, pitching into the seventh before being relieved by Jeff Vogl, who got the final two outs to end the ball game. DesPres struck out seven and walked three.

"It's hard to beat a team three times in one year, and we proved that today," said DesPres after the game.

"Coach told us before the game that focus was the key, and we got it done."

"We got our focus," said Coach DeVore after the game. "A lot of focus, a lot of intensity, and they did everything we talked about at lunch today. I told them I wanted them aggressive at the plate because we've seen their pitchers and we know they throw a lot of strikes, a lot of stuff right over the plate, and today was the best hitting day we've had except the Glenns Ferry game, and I'd put it actually up there with the Glenns Ferry game, because you go one through nine in the line-up and they were all having quality at-bats."

Jake Hiler led the Tigers' 15-hit attack with four hits, including a triple, and four runs scored. T.J. Miller had his two hits and three RBIs. Aaron Swartz and Bret Young also had two hits. Chris Rau had a single and two RBIs, Alex Hoffman and Dave Anderson had hits and RBIs, and Brett Grodi and Michael DesPres also had hits.

Mountain Home 9

Nampa Bulldogs 4

Thursday's Skyview win put the Tigers in the semi-finals against Nampa, the number three seed, who had just swept the Tigers the previous week.

Mountain Home continued to be aggressive at the plate, and scored two runs in the first and three more in the second inning to go up 5-1 over the Bulldogs.

A three-run fourth gave the Tigers a commanding 8-1 lead.

Tiger pitcher Bret Young, who went just two innings against the Bulldogs a week earlier at Nampa, went the distance, scattering five hits while striking out seven and improving to 2-5 on the season.

"I was just able to get the balls over and my defense was able to help me out, so we won!" said Young after the game.

"The nine-run lead did help a lot. If I wouldn't have had that, it probably wouldn't have been as easy, but we did well today, and I hope we can keep it up through the championship game!"

"I'm really proud of the guys," said Coach DeVore. "(Bret) Young throws his best game of the year when we needed it, and the kids' mentality this entire week has been that we're going to state, and they played like it today, going from (Michael) DesPres' catch that saved a run to Dave Anderson's amazing catch in right field. T.J (Miller) had a lot of steady plays at shortstop today. We played with just an all-around team effort up and down the line-up, with people getting quality at bats, and Young the player of the game just because he had a two-hitter or whatever going into the seventh inning."

Alex Hoffman had four hits including a double and drove in three runs for the Tigers against Nampa. Bret Young had two hits and scored two runs. Michael DesPres and Dave Anderson both had doubles, and Brett Grodi had a hit and two RBIs.

The Nampa win puts the Tigers in the District Championship game Friday evening at 6 p.m. against the Bishop Kelly Knights. The Knights swept the Tigers during the regular season, winning 6-3 at Bishop Kelly, and 5-4 in 11 innings at Mountain Home.