Tigers fall to Cougars in 1-2 season opener loss

The Mountain Home Tigers opened their 2014 baseball season at Caldwell last Thursday, losing 2-1 in 10 innings to the Cougars.

The Cougars got on the scoreboard first, scoring an unearned run off Tiger starter Levi Abrahamson in the second inning.

The Tigers tied it in the sixth, when Jesse Cobos singled in Teddy Reaume. The score stayed at 1-1 until the Cougars were able to plate a run in the bottom of the 10th with one out to win 2-1.

Mountain Home Tigers baseball coach Mark Cotton saw plenty of positives to take away from the opener.

"I was really proud of our pitchers. I thought going through ten innings of baseball and not giving up a walk, that's a lot to hang our hat on," the coach said. "We played great defense. The two runs they scored were off of errors, but in ten innings in high school baseball, you're going to have errors.

"We learned some tough lessons," the coach added. "We left a lot of guys in scoring position, so I think the biggest takeaway from this game is we just have to get better offensively."

The Tigers outhit Caldwell 4-3. Jesse Cobos had two of those four hits and an RBI. Danny Brescia and Cody Simpson had the other hits for Mountain Home.

Levi Abrahamson allowed just one hit and struck out five batters over four innings. Zach Petersen pitched the rest of the way, allowing just two hits while striking out four, but suffered the loss.

The Tigers have a busy schedule this week. They were on the road to Jerome Tuesday. They host Emmett on Thursday, travel to Nampa on Friday, and host Filer for a non-conference game on Saturday.

Coach Cotton is looking forward to the schedule.

"I think this will be a really good test to see if we can stat stringing some things together," the coach said. "We have a non-conference game (at Jerome) to get some guys some playing time, but we're also playing to win, and the conference games, too.

I think we can compete with anybody in this district," he added.

Thursday and Friday's games have a 5p.m. starting time. Saturday's game starts at noon.

This week, the Mountain Home News begins its weekly series of taking a look at the Mountain Home Tigers' baseball team.

Levi Abrahamson

Levi Abrahamson is a senior on the Tiger baseball team. The pitcher and outfielder is the son of Kathy and Stan Brown.

His hobbies included sports, hanging with friends and playing with his dog.

Levi's goals for the season are to "do a great job at my positions and play for a district title and then go on to a state title."

His future plans are to "go pitch at TVCC, and from there, study physical therapy."