Tigers continue to struggle following pair of losses

The Mountain Home Tigers dropped a couple of conference baseball games last week.

Skyview 9, Mountain Home 1

Fielding and throwing errors by the Tigers led to seven unearned runs as the Skyview Hawks downed Mountain Home 9-1 last Thursday at Skyview High School in Nampa.

Jiame Martinez got Mountain Home's first hit when he singled in the sixth inning. Jesse Cobos hit a solo home run in the top of the seventh for the Tigers' only run and only other hit.

"The game was a lot closer than the score indicates," said Tigers coach Mark Cotton. "We played good baseball until about midway through that game and then it kind of got away from us. We just didn't come with our 'A' game."

Levi Abrahamson suffered the loss, giving up just two earned runs in four-plus innings of work. Danny Brescia closed out the game for the Tigers.

Middleton 6, Mountain Home 4

(8 innings)

The Middleton Vikings pushed across a couple unearned runs in the top of the eighth inning and held on for a 6-4 eight-inning win over the Mountain Home Tigers Friday at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.

RBI singles by Bailey Miller-Hodge and Teddy Reaume in the second inning gave the Tigers a 3-1 lead, but Middleton chased Mountain Home starting pitcher Zach Petersen in the third, scoring three runs to go up 4-3.

Mountain Home added a run in the bottom of the third to tie the game at 4-4 and the score would stay tied until the eighth inning.

In the top of the eighth, Middleton's first batter reached on an error. Their next batter struck out on a pitch in the dirt, but by the time the catcher was able to throw to first, the batter had reached safely, the first batter moving over to third base.

Middleton then tried a suicide squeeze bunt, and the runner at third was tagged out. A couple walks loaded the bases and Middleton scored one run on a wild pitch and another run on a sacrifice fly to go up 6-4.

Cody Simpson singled with one out in the bottom of the eighth, but the next two batters were retired to end the game, Middleton winning 6-4.

Although it was a game that definitely got away from them, Coach Cotton thought his team played much better than they did the night before at Skyview.

"Our guys came out with so much heart today," the coach said. "They played hard and made the adjustments offensively. I thought we had some great at bats.

"In all reality, I take the blame for this loss," he added. "In the seventh inning, we had a runner on first and second, I probably should have bunted them over and squeezed them in, but at the same time, when you've got your four, five, six batters coming up, and runners in scoring position with no outs, it's a tough call.

Teddy Reaume and Tyler McCall both had two hits for the Tigers, Reaume had a double and RBI. Zach Petersen and Bailey Miller-Hodge had RBI-singles, and Danny Brescia and Cody Simpson also had hits for the Tigers.

Jesse Cobos, who pitched five innings of relief, suffered the loss. He struck out seven batters and walked seven.

The loss drops the Tigers to 1-4 in conference and 2-6 on the season. They have three games scheduled this week -- a conference game at Columbia on Tuesday, a non-conference game at Kimberly on Thursday and a conference game at home on Friday.

The Mountain Home News continues it series of looking at the Mountain Home Tigers baseball team.

Danny Brescia

Danny Brescia is a senior shortstop and pitcher for the Tigers, the son of Karen and Dave Brescia.

Danny's main hobbies include hunting, fishing, ice hockey and football.

Danny's goals for the season are to "help our team have a winning season and go to state."

His plans for the future are to "go to college, be a pilot, make a lot of money with my smokin' hot wife," he said.

Bailey Miller-Hodge

Bailey Miller-Hodge is a junior first baseman for the Tigers, the son of Kristi and Ryan Miller.

Bailey lists his main hobbies as baseball and sleeping.

His main goal for the season is to "go to state."

Bailey's future plans are to "graduate from college and begin my life."