Tiger nine open against Meridian

The Mountain Home Tigers open their 2004 baseball season this week, hosting the Meridian Warriors tomorrow, and traveling to Timberline on Friday.

The Tigers, who graduated six seniors from last year's squad that went 11-12, got their first taste of game experience last Saturday in a Jamboree at Twin Falls. The Tigers played two innings each against Burley, Jerome and Twin Falls Saturday, and all things considered, Mountain Home Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore saw some positives from the efforts.

"We kind of knew what our problems would be going into it, and they definitely surfaced for most of the day, but I felt there were a lot more encouraging things than discouraging things that went on.

"We saw some quality 4A teams in Burley, who was the state champion two years ago, and Jerome, who was state champion last year, and we matched up well against both, so it felt good there, and we played Twin Falls, which is a really competitive 5A program. They took it to us a little bit, but I think if we would have had a little more consistent pitching, we would have been fine there, too, but that's just the early season jitters. Overall, it was a pretty successful day for us."

The Tigers open their regular season this week against 5A foes Meridian and Timberline. Coach DeVore sees opening against the 5A schools as a valuable tool in getting better. "The beauty of being a 4A school near Boise is you end up playing all your early season games against 5A teams, which is actually really nice, and we play some of the best competition in southern Idaho early on, and we definitely look forward to that challenge. The last couple of years I felt we've held our own against those teams. We have our work cut out for us this week, but I'm pretty optimistic that we'll be okay."

Tomorrow's home opener against Meridian is set to start at 4:30 p.m. at Eastside Park, with Friday's start at Timberline set for 5 p.m.