Tigers drop two to Kuna

Mountain Home's run of tough luck on the baseball diamond continued last week with a pair of one-run heartbreakers to Kuna.

Kuna 5, Tigers 4

(nine innings)

The Mountain Home Tigers and Kuna Kavemen went extra innings Friday before the Kavemen prevailed with a 5-4 win at Kuna.

The Kavemen scored first in the fourth inning before Mountain Home pushed across a run in the top of the fifth to tie the game. However, Kuna added another run in the bottom of the fifth to go back up, 2-1.

Mountain Home rallied for three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 4-2 lead before Kuna tied the game at four in the bottom half of the inning to send it to extra innings.

Ben Freilach's walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Kavemen the win.

"It was a great game all the way around," said Tigers head baseball coach Mark Cotton after the game. "We had plenty of opportunities to win the game, and we had some base-running errors. We left 11 runners on base, and when you do that, you're not going to win ball games in all reality."

Looking back, he admitted it was one of the worst-coached games he's had this year.

"Looking back throughout the game, there were opportunities for me to maybe make some moves and do some different things, and I didn't necessarily make the right moves," he said. "I truly believe this game's on me. I thought these guys played their hearts out. I thought they showed how much better they've gotten in a week and how hard they've worked in practice.

Jared Day threw way too well not to win, the coach added.

"When your pitcher throws that well and you don't give him any run support, you're asking for trouble," Cotton said. "We let them hang around, and it came back to bite us."

Alex Rodriguez had two hits including a double, and drove in two runs. Gage Curtis had an RBI-double, Jesse Rodriguez had a double and RBI and Skyler Podesek, Joe Gutierrez and Jared Day also had hits.

Day pitched into the seventh inning before being relieved by Gage Curtis, who lost it in the ninth.

Kavemen 1, Tigers 0

Alex Rodriguez threw a three-hit gem against Kuna on Saturday, but it wasn't enough as the Tiger bats only came up with one hit on the day. Behind the pitching of Dylan Kerbs, as the Kavemen blanked the Tigers, 1-0.

Bumper Hendrix tripled to lead off the fourth inning for Kuna and came home on an error to score the only run of the game.

Mountain Home's only hit of the game was a one-out single by Austin Bodily in the first inning.

"It's a hard pill to swallow when you lose as many close games as we have," Coach Cotton said after the game. "It's kind of typical for us this year; we bring two phases of the game to the field and not (the other) one. When you don't bring one of all three or if you don't play all three pretty solid, you're going to get beat."

The coach credited Alex Rodriguez's efforts on the mound, adding it was the "best outing he's ever had. That's the best I've ever seen him pitch."

As a coach, it's embarrassing to lose by one run, he added.

"You should be able to win a ball game like that when your pitcher gives you that kind of an outing, and he did a great job," Cotton said. "Our defense has come a really long way, but the two things that have absolutely killed us all season is base running, and hitting situationally, and that's what's killed us."

The Tigers fall to 5-7 in conference and 5-13 overall. They travel to Middleton on Thursday, April 26, before they host Middleton on Friday.

"Middleton's a tough team," Coach Cotton said. "They have really good pitching, they have good athletes and they get a lot of kids out for the program. I expect them to be good. I think they're third in our conference now, and in all reality, I think that's where we should be."