Tiger nine sweeps Kuna, moves into fifth place in SIC 4 A

The Mountain Home Tigers moved up to fifth place in the SIC 4A conference baseball standings with a sweep of the Kuna Kavemen last week.

Saturday the Tigers went to Jerome for a non-conference doubleheader and came away with a split.

Tigers 3

Kuna 2

(8 innings)

Jake Hennessey's pinch-hit single scored Gabe Anderson from second base as the Mountain Home Tigers edged the Kuna Kavemen 3-2 in eight innings Thursday in conference baseball at Mountain Home.

Mountain Home's Eric Christiansen and Kuna's Heath Curtis were involved in a pitching duel.

Both teams scored unearned runs in the third inning, and added single runs in the fifth. Neither team scored again through seven innings, forcing extra innings.

Eric Christiansen set down the Kavemen in order in the eighth, and Kuna replaced Heath Curtis on the mound with Brent Rathbone. Rathbone had trouble finding the plate, and walked Gabe Anderson and Chris Maholick to lead off the Tiger eighth. Rathbone was then replaced by Cameron Packham, who struck out Ricky Lee. Jake Hennessey then pinch-hit for Brock Morris and the Tiger freshman singled to center to score Anderson as the Tigers won it 3-2.

"Eric had his stuff, and he threw a great game for us, even through eight innings," said Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore after the game.

"Gabe Anderson was excellent for us at the plate, getting on base all day long -- he was one of the big reasons that we were putting up runs at all -- and then when Jake Hennessey gets his one at bat of the game and makes the game-winner, that's huge as well.

"There's things we could have done better, we've still got to learn to execute a little bit better. That was a game where we needed to get more bunts down and didn't. It was a great win for us, because obviously, it's been a bit of a struggle this season, but there's also a lot of things we can take from it to improve the game as well."

Gabe Anderson had three of the six hits the Tigers had and knocked in a run. Jake Hennessey had the game-winning RBI-single, and Ricky Lee and Eric Christiansen also had hits.

Christiansen evened his record at 2-2, scattering six hits while striking out 13 batters.

Tigers 15

Kavemen 1

(5 innings)

The Tigers bats came alive at Kuna Friday, as they pounded out 12 hits in a 15-1 five-inning win over the Kavemen.

Four hits in the first inning produced two Tiger runs. They added another one in the second and broke the game wide open with a nine-run third as they rolled to a 15-1 win.

"We've had a couple of those games this year -- Nampa, the second Wood River game, and then tonight's game -- it's definitely encouraging, and showing that we're coming along," said DeVore.

"We're getting good pitching efforts out of Gabe (Anderson) and Eric (Christiansen) right now, and Ricky Baker came out swinging the bat great today. Ricky Lee was on base a lot for us today and had a big two-out double that scored three runs, so we had some great moments for us today and I'm really proud of the efforts."

Ricky Baker had three hits including a double and home run and drove in four runs to lead the Mountain Home attack. Ricky Lee also had three hits and four RBIs, two of them doubles.

Gabe Anderson continued his hot hitting, getting two doubles and knocking in two runs, Tom Hennessey had an RBI single, Eric Christiansen and Trevor Woodruff had hits, and Robert Vanderpool got his first varsity hit, a double.

Gabe Anderson gave up just two hits in the day, striking out five, evening his record at 2-2 on the season.

The win improved the Tigers to 5-11 overall, and 3-5 in conference, which moved them ahead of Kuna into fifth place in the league standings.

Mtn. Home 5, 0

Jerome 4, 4

The Tigers traveled to Jerome Saturday for a non-conference doubleheader with the Jerome Tigers, and came back home with a split, winning the first game 5-, in eight innings and losing the second 4-0.

Mountain Home scored twice in the third inning to go up 2-1 in the first game. Jerome tied it at 2-2, with a run in the fifth and after Mountain Home regained the lead, 3-2, in the top of the sixth, pushed across two runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 4-3. Mountain Home tied it in the seventh, and scored a run in the eighth to win 5-4.

Eric Christiansen had three hits including a double in the first game. Gabe Anderson had two hits and an RBI, Ricky Lee and Brock Morris had hits and RBIs, and Anthony Castillo and Trevor Woodruff also had hits, Castillo's a double, and Tom Hennessey had an RBI.

Hennessey picked up the win, going seven innings. Gabe Anderson pitched a scoreless eighth to get the save.

The second game saw Jerome jump out to a 3-0 lead after one and Mountain Home was never able to put together any kind of offensive effort to get on the scoreboard.

Ricky Baker pitched a complete game for the Tigers and had two of Mountain Home's five hits. Tom Hennessey also had two hits, and Jake Hennessey had the other hit for the Tigers.

Coach DeVore was pleased with his guys' efforts at Jerome Saturday.

"I was really proud of the way the boys played. Our pitching was outstanding.

The Tigers took a 6-12 record into Monday's doubleheader at home against Minico. The Tigers return to conference play on Thursday at home against Middleton, and travel to Middleton on Friday.