Tigers fall to Eagle, Bishop Kelly

The Mountain Home Tiger baseball team continued to show improvement despite dropping three games last week.

Eagle Mustangs 10

Mountain Home 5

Things started out well for Mountain Home last Tuesday at Eagle, as the Tigers jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Eagle scored four runs in the second, and added five more in the third to lead, 9-5.

Jeff Vogl came on in relief of Bret Young and allowed just one run the rest of the way, but the Tiger bats were quieted by the Eagle pitchers, the Mustangs winning the non-conference game, 10-5.

"We jumped out on a very good team early, but then just really fell apart. They certainly didn't beat us, we beat ourselves," said Tiger head baseball coach Travis DeVore. "Really, it was another case of us going out there and jumping on top and then just getting a little bit too relaxed and letting them climb back in it and eventually taking the game from us.

"But there were some certainly some positives. Dave Anderson had his best game at the plate so far. (Jeff) Vogl threw extremely well in relief for us, and we're starting to get some guys stepping up defensively, but as a team, we're certainly still struggling."

Dave Anderson led the Tigers at the plate, getting two hits and an RBI. Bret Young had a double and drove in two runs. Michael DesPres and Chris Rau both had hits and RBIs, and Aaron Swartz and Jake Hiler also had hits.

Bret Young took the loss for the Tigers, going three innings, giving up nine runs -- just four earned -- on 10 hits. Jeff Vogl pitched the final three innings, and gave up just one run on four hits and had two strikeouts.

Bishop Kelly 6

Mountain Home 3

The Tigers had the bases loaded with just one out in both the third and fourth innings last Thursday at Bishop Kelly but failed to score both times. Those blown scoring opportunities led to a 6-3 loss to the Knights in conference baseball. They were trailing, 3-0, at the time, and Bishop Kelly scored three unearned runs in the fourth to go up, 6-0.

Mountain Home did finally get on the scoreboard in the fifth, scoring three runs. Bret Young's triple drove in two of them, and he stole home for the third run. But those were the only runs the Tigers were able to score off Kyle Wuestenfeld, who struck out nine while walking four and hitting three batters.

"It's another case of us somewhat beating ourselves," said Coach DeVore. "There are certainly things I'm going to walk away from here feeling pleased about, and that starts with (Jake) Hiler coming in and throwing extremely well for us, and if it wasn't for errors in that fourth inning, it'd been a little bit different ball game.

"When your starting pitcher comes out with a sore back early, that puts your bullpen on the spot, and I was overly impressed with Hiler and (Jeff) Vogl -- that was his second good outing of the week. So there were some positives there, and the whole season is all about preparing for the end of the season, but it's tough mentally for a team to continue to drop games."

Brett Young and Aaron Swartz both had two hits -- the only hits for the Tigers off Wuestenfeld. Young had a triple and two RBIs.

Chris Rau took the loss, giving up two runs in the first inning before a sore back sent him to the bench. Jake Hiler went three innings and did not give up an earned run. Jeff Vogl also pitched two scoreless innings.

Bishop Kelly 5

Mountain Home 4

(11 innings)

The two teams completed their conference series at Mountain Home last Friday, and the game went 11 innings and nearly four hours before the Knights scored an unearned run in the 11th that gave them a 5-4 victory and keep them unbeaten on the season.

Mountain Home's Michael DesPres and Bishop Kelly's Kyle Cefalo were involved in a pitching duel. The Tigers took advantage of a hit, three walks and a hit batter to score two runs in the third to go up, 2-0.

Bishop Kelly cut the Tiger lead to 2-1, with an unearned run in the third, but two walks, a hit batter and a single plated two more Tiger runs in the fifth, chasing Kyle Cefalo from the mound.

Michael DesPres went into the top of the sixth, leading 4-1. He gave up three straight hits without retiring anyone. Jeff Vogl came on in relief, and managed to get out of the inning allowing just one more hit, but the Knights had tied the score at 4-4.

From there, Jeff Vogl and Bret Young shut out the Knights, while Bishop Kelly ace Josh Osich blanked the Tigers, striking out 16 batters in his 6 2/3 innings of work.

Kyle Wuestenfeld walked with one out in the top of the 11th.

He stole second and came home on an error with what proved to be the winning run.

Despite the loss, Coach DeVore had plenty of positives to take from the game.

"After the game (Bishop Kelly coach) Bob Sutcliffe said that's the best game he's ever been a part of, and that's the way people, when you walk away from a game like that, that's the sentiment usually. It slowly stops being about winning and losing and I think everyone just gets excited about being a part of it. The fans got excited, the kids got excited, the parents are excited, and that's a big part of it, and it was a heck of a ball game.

You know, they're the only undefeated team in southern Idaho right now, and we obviously showed what we're capable of. I think we'd like to have some of those at bats back in later innings, but so would they.

"It was a game where our bull pens carried us, Mike DesPres carried us, and it was anyone's game, and I'll take a whole season of games like that. I won't probably survive it medically, but I'll definitely take a whole season of that because it's fun baseball to be a part of, and I'm proud of our team today."

Mountain Home had just five hits in the ball game, and Bret Young had two of them, including a triple. Michael DesPres had a hit and two RBIs, Aaron Swartz, and Cory McGuire also had hits, and Brett Grodi and Chris Rau had RBIs.

Bret Young suffered the loss, despite pitching four innings of two-hit ball, giving up one unearned run. Jeff Vogl had another good outing, pitching two scoreless innings, and Michael DesPres gave up four runs on seven hits, three of the runs earned, while striking out 12 batters in five innings of work.

The Tigers, who fell to 1-5 in conference play and 1-6 overall, open play at the Buck's Bag Spring Classic tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at 4:30 p.m. against Idaho Falls at Nampa's Rodeo Park.

Their schedule has them playing Middleton at 10 a.m. Friday morning and Nampa at 4 p.m. Friday. They will play for places on Saturday either at noon or 3 p.m. against a team to be determined by how they do in their first three games.

"If our guys keep throwing as well as they did, I mean Vogl had just a great week coming on in relief for us, Young threw exceedingly well today, and I can't say enough about the way that DesPres has been throwing, so if our pitching continues to develop, we're calling up some young guys off the JV team that are going to challenge us, too, and they've begun playing well as of late, so I think that will give us an extra boost and give us a few more options out of the dugout as well, so I'm optimistic.

"I didn't foresee us starting the season 1-6, and I'm certainly not pleased with that, but I look back over the last four games and I see a steady amount of improvement going on, and I think that when you do start the season, you just want to see yourself improving over the first few games and that's what we're seeing, so I'm excited and I hope the kids, if nothing else, just are motivated by today."