Tigers split week's diamond action

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

The week started with a shutout win at Nampa and ended with a slugfest against Jerome, with the Mountain Home Tigers winning two of the four baseball games they played last week.

Mountain Home 7

Nampa Bulldogs 0

Michael Hobgood throw a five-hit shutout and Mountain Home got timely hits to go along with some Nampa errors to down the Bulldogs 7-0 last Tuesday at Rodeo Park in Nampa.

The Tigers took advantage of three errors in the second inning to score three unearned runs, two of them off a double by Jacob Hiler. That would be all the scoring until the top of the seventh, when Brett Young followed a hit batter and walk with a two-run double. Brett Grodi then followed with a double to score Young, and T.J. Miller singled in Grodi to make it 7-0 Tigers.

That would prove to be more than enough for Michael Hobgood who was helped out by a double play and closed out the shutout for the win.

"A team like this, they're going to come out and swing, so it's real vital to get ahead of them throwing off-speed stuff and really mix it up to them," said Tiger pitcher Michael Hobgood. "Fortunately I got a few pop outs, which kind of makes up for not having a lot of strikeouts, and a low walk total, and then these guys got me three runs in the second inning, and then, with the good seventh, it's really easy to achieve when you have a 7-0 lead in the seventh inning.."

Hobgood, who improved to 3-0 on the season, also credited his defense for making some good plays.

"The outfielders really played today. Those were some balls that probably should have landed for some extra-base hits, and they hustled and caught the ball for me real well."

Hobgood struck out six and walked just two, giving up five hits, three of them doubles.

"It was another good outing for Michael Hobgood," said Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore. "I'm really impressed with how good that kid is throwing at this point."

Brett Grodi and Joe Poseley both had two hits for the Tigers, Grodi had a double and an RBI and scored two runs. Jacob Hiler had a two-run double, Brett Young had a double and an RBI, T.J. Miller had an RBI single, and Chase Bitterman also had a hit.

"There we re a lot of things that impressed me," added DeVore.

"Chase Bitterman continues to improve at the plate. Defensively, that's probably the best game we've played all year. Our approach at the plate is definitely getting better as a team, although it's not perfect, but as long as we're making strides and still able to get w's without playing as well as we can, that says a lot."

Emmett Huskies 10

Mountain Home 1

The Tigers had four different streaks come to an end with their 10-1 loss to the Huskies at Emmett last Thursday. First, was their three-game win streak; second, Michael DesPres' two-game win streak; third, DesPres' 14 inning shutout streak; and, fourth, Mountain Home pitching had 14 2/3 innings without a run scored.

The scoreless streak ended early for Michael DesPres and the Tigers, as the first three batters reached on "seeing-eye" hits, the third, producing a run. The next two Emmett batters reached on errors, which produced two more runs, and then a double by Matt Munson made it 4-0 Emmett, still with no one out.

DesPres then took control, and retired the side, the final two by strikeouts, and shut down the Huskies for the next four innings.

Mountain Home's bats, meanwhile, were being kept quiet by Husky starter Heath Korell. The Tigers managed their first base runner in the third inning, when T.J. Miller drew a walk.

Mountain Home's first hit came in the fourth, on a leadoff single by Aaron Swartz. Swartz stole second, but was tagged out going to third on a groundout to short by Brian Fields, Fields reaching on a fielder's choice. Brett Young then lined out to the second baseman, who threw to first to double up Fields, who had been running on the play.

The Tigers finally scored in the fifth, getting a one-out single by Joe Poseley, who went to third on a throwing error on Chris Rau's groundout, and came home on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Hiler, to make it 4-1.

Mountain Home threatened to blow the game open in the top of the sixth, taking advantage of a hit batter and two walks to load the bases, but Joe Poseley's hard hit fly ball was caught by the right fielder to end the inning and the threat.

Things then came undone for the Tigers in the bottom of the sixth, as after a leadoff single by Grant Webb, Matt Munson hit a Michael DesPres pitch out of the ball park for a 6-1 Emmett lead. After a one-out single, Coach DeVore went to Chris Rau on the mound, and he gave up three straight hits before recording an out. Once the inning was finally over, it was 10-1, Emmett.

The Tigers managed two base runners in the top of the seventh on two walks by Heath Korell, who was replaced on the mound by Eric Kaiser, who retired Aaron Swartz on a liner to the shortstop to end the inning and the game.

In radio comments after the game, Coach DeVore talked about the four-run first inning by Emmett.

Michael (DesPres) didn't really get hit hard at all -- balls off the handle, balls off the end of the bat and just squeaking in there -- it was just a case of bad luck on his part, and we had opportunities to get out of that inning, obviously, a couple of errors in the field didn't help us out, but we didn't come to play, and that's probably the biggest factor in the game, and our hitters were pretty passive out there. DesPres pitched well enough to win tonight. We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole and it seemed like we never got the confidence to get ourselves out of it. The final score doesn't show the game at all. If Poseley's ball drops in, that's a 4-4 game going into the bottom of the sixth. It looks like a bad score on paper, and it feels like a bad loss, but the game could have evened out over the last inning and gone a lot of different ways."

Michael DesPres dropped to 2-3 on the season, going 5 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs (five earned) on 10 hits, while striking out five batters and walking or hitting none.

Mountain Home 5

Emmett Huskies 4 (8 innings)

Chris Rau's two-out single ended Friday's ball game with the Huskies, as the Tigers fought back to claim the win in eight innings.

The game really was a great pitching dual, with apologies by fielding errors that led to runs on both sides, as Mountain Home's Brian Fields and Emmett's Matt Munson went at it.

The Tigers scored in the first when Aaron Swartz singled and went to second on a throwing error. Brian Fields then sacrificed Swartz to third, and he came home on a fielding error on Brett Young's ground ball.

Mountain Home got to Matt Munson for two runs in the third, as Aaron Swartz led off the inning with a double, and went to third on Brian Field's second straight sacrifice bunt. After Brett Young popped out to the first baseman, Brett Grodi was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners. Joe Poseley then singled in Swartz, and Chris Rau singled to plate another run.

Meanwhile, Brian Fields was pitching a masterful game against Emmett, limiting them to just one hit through four innings. In the fifth, a walk and two singles loaded the bases for the

Huskies, with one out. A fielding error then led to two runs, before Fields shut them down and got out of the inning, but the lead was cut to 3-2.

A walk and a hit batter in the top of the sixth led to Coach DeVore pulling Fields for Michael Hobgood, who retired the side without any further runs scored.

In the top of the seventh, Hobgood retired the first two batters, and was an out away from recording the save. Tyrell Olson then doubled, and came home on an error, to tie the game at 3-3.

The Tigers got a leadoff single by Jacob Hiler in the bottom of the seventh, but failed to score, and the game went into extra innings.

In the top of the eighth another Mountain Home throwing error plated a run for Emmett, who went up 4-3.

Trailing for the first time in the game, the Tigers went to work in the bottom of the eighth.

Brian Fields led off the inning with a single, and stole second. After Brett Young popped out to third, and Brett Grodi grounded out to the pitcher, Joe Poseley reached on an error, putting runners at first and third. Poseley then stole second, uncontested. Matt Munson, who went the distance for Emmett, worked a two-strike count on Chris Rau, but the talented Tiger freshman then sent the next pitch into right-center for a single that scored both Fields and Poseley to win the ball game."

"There's some character there!" said a happy Coach DeVore after the game. "You can see the growing pains. We had some guys make key errors late in the game, and guys making some base running mistakes, not being able to execute a bunt, and to still come away from that with a win and have a lot of fight, that's definitely some character, especially after last night's loss. I was really proud of the guys, because when they left the field after last night's 10-1 loss, all they talked about was how bad they wanted to win today, and they knew they were going to go against (Matt) Munson, and he threw well enough for Emmett to win, and (Brian) Fields threw outstanding, and he threw well enough for us to win. That's his best touting by far this year."

Chris Rau had two hits and three RBIs, Aaron Swartz ha two hits including a double, and another freshman, Jacob Hiler also had two hits. Brian Fields also had a hit.

Michael Hobgood improved to 4-0, going 2 1/3 innings in relief, giving up two unearned runs, striking out one and walking one. Brian Fields gave up two runs, one of them earned, in 5 2/3 innings, striking out six, walking just one and hitting one.

Jerome 17

Mountain Home 16

Saturday was a day that the Tigers awoke thinking they would be playing a non-conference home game against the Minico Spartans, but as it turned out, they played the Jerome Tigers.

After falling behind 17-3, Mountain Home rallied, and had the tying run at second base when the game ended, as they came up short, 17-16.

Jerome jumped on Tiger starter Aaron Swartz for eight runs on just three hits, one of them a three-run homer by Preston Hills. Mountain Home errors also contributed in the melee. Joe Poseley came in to retire the side to get out of the inning.

Jerome scored two more runs in the second. Mountain Home pushed across three in the bottom of the second to make it 10-3, Jerome. The visiting Tigers from Jerome went through three Mountain Home pitchers in the third, scoring seven more runs before Brett Young came in and put out the fire for Mountain Home, but the locals trailed 17-3 heading into the bottom of the third.

Mountain Home put together seven hits along with a couple Jerome errors to score nine times in the bottom half to cut the deficit to 17-12.

Brett Young shut down Jerome the rest of the way, and Mountain Home scored one runs in the sixth, and three more in the seventh, and had the tying run at second base when the final out was recorded, and the game ended, 17-16, Jerome.

"When you play four games in a week and you get down to that last game, who knows what's going to happen, and it looked that way for both Jerome and us, but I was impressed with the kids desire to come back," said Coach DeVore after the game.

Mountain Home pounded out 16 hits in the game. Brett Grodi had four hits and three RBI.

Chase Bitterman had three hits and three RBIs, Dave Anderson had two hits and three RBIs.

Brett Young had two hits and an RBI, and Aaron Swartz had two hits. Tyson Sessions and T.J. Miller had hits and RBIs, and Chris Rau also had a hit. Brett Young pitched 4 2/3 innings of shutout ball, giving up just three hits while striking out nine.

The Tigers head into this week's conference games against Bishop Kelly, 4-2 in league play, and 6-8 overall. The Tigers host Bishop Kelly tomorrow (Thursday) at 5:00 p.m. and go to Bishop Kelly for a 5 p.m. contest on Friday.

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