Tigers sweep conference series against Caldwell

The Mountain Home Tigers swept their conference baseball series with Caldwell last week, winning on the road before returning home to face the Cougars.

Tigers 8, Cougars 2

A five-run third inning for Mountain Home gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead as they went on to win, 8-2, last Wednesday at Caldwell.

Alex Rodriguez led the Tigers with three hits and scored two runs. Danny Brescia and Joe Gutierrez both had two hits with Brescia hitting two doubles and driving in three runs and Gutierrez adding a double and two RBIs.

Skyler Podesek and Gage Curtis also had hits, including Podesek's two-run homer.

Jared Day got the win to improve to 2-0 on the season. He pitched five innings, giving up just four hits while striking out four. Gage Curtis pitched the final two innings for the Tigers.

"I thought Jared really came out and battled. He worked ahead in the count and the defense played really well behind him," said Tigers head baseball coach Mark Cotton. "He had kind of a tender arm, so we pulled him a little early. (But) he definitely put out a pretty good performance."

Offensively, the team remained "very impressive" with the Tigers stepping up through the lineup, the coach added.

Tigers 15, Cougars 1 (five innings)

Great hitting and pitching efforts helped the Tigers roll to a 15-1 five-inning win over Caldwell in Mountain Home on Friday.

The Tigers broke the game open with nine runs in the third inning as they sent 15 batters to the plate in the inning. Mountain Home got to three Caldwell pitchers for 12 hits while Alex Rodriguez and Alex Burke combined on a two-hitter.

"To be honest, we didn't look that good in pre-game, so I was real nervous going into the game, just not knowing where our focus was," Coach Cotton said after the game. "We came out and had kind of a rough first and second inning, and then they just really turned it on."

The Tigers did a great job at the plate all week, the coach added.

"We hit really well on Wednesday and kind of picked up where we left off today. I think Danny Brescia has been a big part of that. Being our lead-off hitter, he's been a big catalyst -- he was three-four-four today and had a single, double and a triple. He's done a great job of getting things going for us early.

Meanwhile, Skyler Podesek stayed hot with the bat as well, Cotton said.

"All through the lineup, everybody's hitting. I think that's one of the keys -- we're getting production from the top half of our lineup as well as the bottom half, and that's helped take the pressure off our pitching.

The coach also credited Rodriguez' efforts at the mound.

"I would guess we're probably giving up less than two earned runs a game," Cotton said.

Danny Brescia and Skyler Podesek both had three hits, including Brescia's double and triple along with four runs. Podesek had a triple while driving in three and scoring three runs.

Gage Curtis had two hits and two RBI, Austin Bodily had a two-run double, Jake Hennessey had an RBI-triple, Jared Day had a hit and RBI and Alex Rodriguez also had a hit.

Rodriguez threw four innings to pick up the win and improve to 2-1. He struck out seven and allowed one unearned run and one hit. Meanwhile, Alex Burke pitched a scoreless inning of relief.

The win improved Mountain Home to 4-1 in conference and on the season. They play in the Bucks Bags Spring Classic this week with the games held at the Fort Boise field.

They open at 1 p.m. Thursday against Skyview and play Minico at 3:30 p.m. that afternoon. On Friday, they take on Skyline at 10:30 a.m. before they close out the Spring Classic against the Boise Braves at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday

"It's always good to kind of see what your whole lineup can do and get a lot of opportunity to get guys playing time," the coach said regarding the Bucks Bags Spring Classic. "Obviously, you get to see guys who aren't necessarily in your conference but who you might see down the road at state."

The coach emphasized that his team is looking forward to the challenge.

"I hope our guys aren't satisfied with where we're at," he added. "We've had a great start, being 4-1, but we still have a lot to improve on."