DePres' pitching gives Tigers first win

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The Mountain Home Tigers bounced back from an 11-4 loss to Emmett at Mountain Home Thursday night to beat the Huskies, 3-0, at Emmett in SIC 4A conference baseball action last week.

Emmett Huskies 11

Mountain Home 4

A five-run sixth inning for Emmett proved to be the Tigers' downfall last Thursday night in conference baseball at Mountain Home.

Emmett's Joe Johnson and Mountain Home's Brett Young were involved in a pitching duel for five innings, with the Huskies up, 3-1, heading to the sixth.

Aaron Swartz took over on the mound for Mountain Home in the sixth, and walked the first three batters he faced before being relieved by Jake Hiler. Hiler managed to get the Tigers out of the inning, but walked three more, and errors helped the Huskies score five runs, three of them earned in the inning to take an 8-1 lead.

Emmett scored three more runs off Joe Poseley in the top of the seventh to make it 11-1.

Mountain Home rallied to score three runs in the bottom of the seventh, to make it an 11-4 final.

"We just continued our sloppy ways" said Mountain Home Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore after the game.

"It's just that early season sort of blues right now. We worked hard on our pickoff plays and just our overall mental game in terms of runners on base, and we looked better with that, and then the wheels fell off in the sixth inning. I just feel like each time we come out we find something else that needs to be tinkered with."

The Tigers managed just five hits in the game, with five different Tigers getting hits. Tyson Sessions had a hit and two RBIs, Kori Andrews had a hit and an RBI, Michael DesPres and Aaron Swartz also getting hits, and Brett Grodi had an RBI.

Brett Young suffered the loss, going five innings, giving up three runs, just one earned, while striking out four and walking six. The four Tiger pitchers walked 13 batters.

Mountain Home 3

Emmett 0

The Tigers went to Emmett Friday and got a brilliant pitching effort from Michael DesPres to record their first win of the season.

DesPres allowed a two-out single in the first inning for the only hit by the Huskies, while striking out 11 and walking just two in going the distance.

"Obviously today was a must-win for us," said DesPres. "Our pitching was struggling the first night against these guys, and again, I had the advantage over them, seeing them the night before, so I could study what they had so I'd be ready for today, and working ahead (in the count) was just the key today. My curve ball was working a lot better than it was in the bull pen, and I'm glad for that. It's good to have a win."

A two-run home run by Brett Grodi in the first inning gave DesPres a 2-0 lead to work with. The Tigers had other chances to score, but only managed to add another run in the seventh, on a sacrifice fly by Aaron Swartz.

"That's a huge monkey off our backs," said Coach DeVore. "We've just been playing absolutely horrible baseball, and today Mike (DesPres) came out and really stepped it up for us, and a lot of players stepped up. We finally solidified our defense in the infield and T.J. Miller played an awesome shortstop for us.

"Obviously, Brett Grodi's home run to start the ball game on an 0-2 pitch was a nice nail in the coffin, but I've got to hand it to DesPres, he was absolutely determined to win today, and the other guys were obviously contributors. I think Mike showed today why he's getting college scholarship offers, because he threw a heck of a game."

Brett Grodi's home run and Aaron Swartz' sacrifice fly accounted for the Tigers' three runs. Brett Young had two hits, Tyson Sessions, Kori Andrews and Jake Hiler also had hits.

Mountain Home this week has what Coach DeVore called, "the toughest week of the year." The Tigers played at Eagle (Tuesday) last night, and play at Bishop Kelly tomorrow (Thursday) and are home against Bishop Kelly on Friday.

"We have Eagle Tuesday, and they were the 5A state runner-up last year, and Bishop Kelly was the state champion in the 4A, and both have a lot of returning players."

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