Tigers go two and out at state

The Mountain Home Tigers played some of their best baseball at the State 4A Baseball Tournament at Nampa last week.

Unfortunately, that did not mean they brought home any trophies, as they went out of the tournament in two tough losses.

Sandpoint 1

Mountain Home 0

Mountain Home's Michael DesPres once again tuned in a fine performance on the mound last Thursday in the Tigers' state tourney opener against Sandpoint.

Likewise, Sandpoint's Tyler Lichty pitched a dandy of his own, holding the Tigers to just one hit as the game was scoreless going to the Sandpoint seventh, where the Bulldogs pushed across a run to win it 1-0.

In that fateful seventh, Tyler Lichty led off the inning, and battled Michael DesPres for a walk -- the only one the Tiger senior allowed all game. Lichty stole second, but DesPres got the next batter out by a strikeout -- his ninth of the game. Zac Manor then reached on an infield hit, with Lichty moving to third base.

Vinny D'Orazi batted next. The Bulldog third baseman had struck out his previous two occasions against DesPres. This time the Bulldogs worked the squeeze bunt perfectly, and Lichty came in to score the game-winner.

"That was a great ball game," said Mountain Home Tiger head baseball coach Travis DeVore in radio comments after the game.

"We didn't hit as well as we can, but you know, neither did they. That was just two great pitchers battling it out. There were a couple close calls in the seventh that ended up going Sandpoint's way, and they took advantage of it.

"I have nothing but good things to say about Sandpoint, they're a great group of kids, and I'm proud of the effort we put forth. We always want to hit the ball a little better than we did, but I'm real proud of our team right now."

Mountain Home's lone hit off Tyler Lichty was a bloop single to right that Clay Montgomery, the Sandpoint right fielder, charged to try to catch, and the ball then bounced past him, and when Rau saw the ball go past Montgomery, he headed to second base, where he was thrown out on a close play at the bag.

Mountain Home had only four base runners in the ballgame and none of them got past first base.

In the Tiger second inning, Michael DesPres led off with a walk, but was erased on a double-play ground ball by Alex Hoffman. Brett Grodi then walked, but Cal Vivier, who came in to run for Grodi, was picked off first by Lichty to end the inning.

That would be the Tigers' last base runner until the seventh, when Chris Rau drew a two-out walk.

Tyson Sessions came in to run for Rau, and was thrown out trying to steal second to end the inning and the ball game.

"We're not a very fast team, and we've had to play a lot of station-to-station baseball, and in tight ball games, station-to-station doesn't always get it done, and it showed today," said Coach DeVore.

"We didn't have runners in scoring position the whole game because their kid did a great job of holding runners on first, and he worked himself out of any pressure there was."

Michael DesPres suffered the loss to end the season 6-3. He struck out nine, walked just one and scattered six hits.

Minico 6

Mountain Home 2

The Sandpoint loss put the Tigers in a Friday morning game against Minico. The Spartans, the defending state champs, had been beaten by Madison, 7-5, in their state opener.

Both teams led off the first inning by getting the first two batters on base with no outs, but Spartan pitcher Andy Carlisle then struck out the next three batters to end the threat.

Tiger pitcher Bret Young retired the next two, but then gave up two hits and Minico plated two runs in the bottom of the first to take a 2-0 lead.

The score stayed 2-0, Minico, until the fifth, when, after Aaron Swartz reached safely on an error with two outs, Bret Young drilled a Carlisle pitch over the right field wall for a two-run home run that tied the game at 2-2.

Back came the Spartans in the bottom of the fifth, using an error and four hits to score four runs to lead, 6-2, a lead they held on to for the win, eliminating the Tigers from the tournament.

"You could tell our kids were a little bit emotionally drained coming in the game," said Coach DeVore. "It's tough to bounce back after a heartbreaking loss like last night, and we talked about that last night and we talked about it first thing when we got here today. We knew that was going to be tough to overcome, and it just looked like we never quite did.

"That's not to say Young didn't have have a great game for us, and that two-run home run was huge, and he threw well enough for us to win for sure, we just couldn't quite get there.

"It kind of ended on a rough note, but I'm proud of the kids for getting there (state). They had a lot of heart to win those games in the district, and both games at state were close enough to win going into the late innings, so definitely, there's a lot of positive things to step away from this.

"Minico's a great program and the defending state champions for a reason, and their kids played better than us today, not that our kids played horrible or anything like that, for it's been a great finish to the season and we'll definitely keep our heads up as we walk out of the park today."

Once again a lack of hitting hurt the Tigers, as they managed just three hits in the ball game.

Besides Young's two-run homer, Alex Hoffman and Dave Anderson had hits.

Young suffered the loss, ending the season with a 2-6 record. He gave up all six runs, just four of them earned and gave up eight hits while striking out four and walking two. Jeff Vogl pitched two-thirds of an inning of relief, and Jake Hiler pitched the final inning and a third.

The Tigers ended the season 9-17 overall.