Tigers open districts at 1-2

The Mountain Home Tigers ended up playing Nampa three times last week but managed just one win as they opened the district baseball tournament with a tough loss to the Bulldogs at Bishop Kelly.

Tigers 10, Nampa 2

Mountain Home snapped a two-game losing skid last Tuesday with their 10-2 conference win over the Nampa Bulldogs for Senior Night in Mountain Home. The Tigers had 11 hits, eight of them for extra bases, as they jumped out to an 8-0 lead and never looked back.

Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore was pleased with the win.

"You couldn't have asked or gotten more out of the guys last night... Eric Christiansen pitched a gem, Trevor Woodruff had some good at-bats, and Jon McCabe had three extra base hits that would have been home runs in any other park."

Woodruff and McCabe both had three hits. McCabe had two doubles and a triple while Woodruff hit a double and a triple and three RBIs. Eric Christiansen and Tom Hennessey both had two hits. Christiansen had an RBI and Hennessey had a double. David Bitrick had a double and Devan Wilkinson had an RBI.

Christiansen gave up just three hits in five innings, striking out five to improve to 3-3 on the season.

Nampa 14, Tigers 6

Mountain Home got off to a good start and built up a 6-0 lead Wednesday night at Nampa, but the Bulldogs scored 14 unanswered runs to down the Tigers 14-6.

Mountain Home scored three runs in the first inning and added three more in the top of the fourth, only to see Nampa battle back to tie the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the fourth. The Bulldogs added five more in the fifth and three more in the sixth to complete the scoring on the night.

"This game is really emblematic of the last month for us," said Coach DeVore. "We are not the same team from inning to inning, let alone from game to game, and it's frustrating."

Tom Hennessey had two hits and drove in two runs for the Tigers. Jon McCabe had a two-run single, Eric Christiansen had an RBI-single and David Bitrick, Jake Hennessey and Skyler Podesek also had hits.

Alex Rodriguez, the second of three Tiger pitchers, suffered the loss, despite not giving up an earned run. He fell to 4-2 on the season.

Nampa 8, Tigers 7 (8 innings)

Mountain Home received the number five seed in the district tourney and opened district play Saturday against Nampa, which was seeded fourth. After splitting the conference series earlier in the week, the game took extra innings to decide, with Kyler Wells singling in the winning run with two out in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Bulldogs an 8-7 win.

Brock Morris tripled to lead off the first inning for the Tigers and David Bitrick brought him home on a sacrifice fly to centerfield, as Mountain Home grabbed a quick 1-0 lead.

Nampa took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second as A.J. Minini homered over the left field fence with a runner on.

Mountain Home tied the game in the top of the third as Brock Morris walked with two out, stole second, and came home on a single by David Bitrick.

The Tigers took the lead, 3-2, in the fourth, as Tom Hennessey singled to lead off the inning, went to second base on the sacrifice by Trevor Woodruff, and came home on a single by Skyler Podesek.

The Tigers scored two more in the top of the fifth to up their lead to 5-2, but Nampa put up four runs in the bottom half of the inning without the benefit of a hit, taking advantage of three walks, two errors and a hit batter to regain the lead, 6-5.

Trevor Woodruff excited fans with a two-run home run in the top of the seventh to put the Tigers up 7-6, but Nampa tied it up in the bottom of the seventh to send it into extra innings. The Tigers failed to score in the top of the eighth as a double-play took them out of the inning.

Nampa's Kesler Thueson singled with one out in the bottom of the eighth, went to second on a ground-out to third, and came home on Kyler Wells' game-winning hit to left.

David Bitrick and Tom Hennessey both had two hits for Mountain Home, Bitrick drove in two runs. Trevor Woodruff had a two-run home run, Eric Christiansen and Skyler Podesek both had RBI-singles, Brock Morris had a triple and Anthony Castillo had a double.

Trevor Woodruff, who relieved Eric Christiansen in the fifth inning, suffered the loss, dropping to 2-4 on the season.