Tiger nine pick up first two wins

The Mountain Home Tigers picked up their first two wins of the young baseball season at last week's Buck's Bag Baseball Tournament in Boise.

Mountain Home 12

Mountain View 2

An RBI double by Brett Young helped key a six-run first inning for the Tigers as they picked up their first win of the young baseball season last Thursday in their Buck's Bag Tourney opener.

Michael Hobgood scattered six hits in picking up his first win of the season. He struck out four and walked just one in a game called after five innings due to the 10-run rule.

Aaron Swartz had two hits and an RBI. Brett Grodi also had a doubel and an RBI. Joe Poseley and Jacob Hiler both had hits and RBIs, and Chris Rau also knocked in a run.

Mountain Home 2

Middleton 0

Michael DesPres had a complete game two-hit shutout last Friday as the Tigers downed Middleton 2-0 at the Buck's Bag Tourney.

An RBI triple by Brett Young produced the only run DesPres needed, as he struck out 10 Viking batters in winning his first game of the season.

Besides Young's triple, the Tigers also got hits from Brian Fields, Brett Grodi and Joe Poseley.

Boise Braves 15

Mountain Home 0

The Tigers were one-hit by the unbeaten Boise Braves last Friday in a 15-0 loss in the Bucks Bag Tournament.

Mike Anderson had Mountain Home's only hit, and Brett Young suffered the loss, as the Braves scored five runs in the second and added seven more in the third on their way to a 10-run-rule win.

Centennial 12

Mountain Home 2

The Tigers were 10-runned by the Patriots in Saturday's Buck's Bag Tournament game, but matched Centennial's hit total of nine, which was Mountain Home's most hits thus far in the young season.

Brian Fields suffered the loss on the mound, but picked up a couple hits at the plate. Brett Young, Brett Grodi and Chris Rau also had two hits for the Tigers. Joe Poseley also collected a hit.

Looking back at his team's effort at the tourney, Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore was feeling positive.

"We definitely learned a lot about our team this weekend. I think we still have a lot of growing up to do, but we moved some guys up and shuffled the lineup around a little bit, and I think we found some improvements with our defense.

"Michael DesPres and Michael Hobgood definitely threw extremely well for us in our two victories. Their output's a big perk, but I think more than anything, we used the Buck's Bag Tournament to just learn more about the team and start coming together more, and obviously, winning is the key to building up a little bit of confidence, and I am feeling confident.

"When you can get a couple guys like Michael DesPres and Michael Hobgood start dominating like that, you feel like every time you go into a game you're going to have a chance to win.

"I especially feel good when our defense shows signs of improvement.

"There were a lot of young guys that got their first varsity hits this weekend, and that's certainly encouraging."

The Tigers take a 2-6 overall record into this week's conference games against Skyview. The Tigers host Skyview at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday), and travel to Skyview Friday for a 4:30 p.m. contest.