Tigers bow out of district tournament after 3 games

The season came to a disappointing end for the Mountain Home Tiger baseball team last week, as they went out of the district tourney in three games.

Nampa 3

Mtn. Home 1

The Mountain Home Tigers had runners on base in every inning but the first Tuesday evening at Nampa, but managed to score just once all game. Two unearned runs for Nampa in the fifth inning proved to be enough for the six-seeded Bulldogs to begin their Cinderella ride through the District III 4A Tournament, knocking off the number three seed Tigers, 3-1.

The Tigers left 11 runners on base during the game, and scored their only run in the fourth inning, when Brock Morris singled in Joe Poseley, who had led the inning off with a double.

"We had plenty of times with guys in scoring position where we had balls hit that looked like they could drop in and didn't, and guys made big plays for them," said Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore after the game.

"I can't say enough, Nampa just absolutely stepped up when they needed to. We knew Nampa was going to be a tough game. I'm not shocked at all about the game. I thought it might be a 3-1 ball game, but I thought we'd be on the other side of it. We had our chances. We have no one to knock but ourselves."

Jordan Cisna and Brock Morris both had two hits for Mountain Home, Morris had an RBI. Chris Rau and Joe Poseley both had doubles, and Cal Vivier, Jake Hiler and Ricky Lee also had hits.

Chris Rau suffered the loss, despite giving up just one earned run while striking out six.

Tigers 6

Kuna 1

Mountain Home kept their season going Wednesday with a 6-1 win over Kuna at Kuna.

Kuna scored their only run in the first, an unearned run off Jake Hiler, who settled down and tossed a five hitter, striking out 11.

Mountain Home managed just five hits themselves, but took advantage of Kuna errors to score five unearned runs. John Murdorf had two hits including a double, Jake Hiler had a double, Cal vivier had a two-run single, and Jordan Cisna had the Tigers' only other hit.

"We owe a lot of that game to Jake Hiler," said Coach DeVore after the game. "He obviously had his stuff today, and emotionally, you could just feel that we were down. You need a guy to step up and he did at a time where that loss last night was still obviously in the back of our minds. We've got to put this one behind us as well, because it's not like we played exceedingly well. We've still got to get better and play better, but it's a win and maybe it will bring our confidence up a little bit for tomorrow's game."

Columbia 12

Mtn. Home 5

The Tigers battled back from an early 3-0 deficit to tie the game at 5-5 in the fourth, but Columbia exploded for seven runs in the fifth to oust the Tigers, 12-5.

Joe Poseley had two hits, including a double, and drove in two runs. Ricky Lee and John Murdorf both had hits and RBIs. Jake Hiler had a double and Jordan Cisna also had a hit. Murdorf suffered the loss, going 5 1/3 innings, giving up seven runs on six hits. Gabe Anderson and Ricky Baker also pitched for the Tigers.

"It was one of those games, quite frankly, that Columbia let us hang around, because we didn't play our best, and we certainly gave them some runs early that we were able to take back by clawing back into the game, but ultimately, they're a great hitting team and they showed that in the sixth inning, after we had tied it in the bottom of the fifth, they came right out and took charge of the game, so you've really got to give credit to them," said Coach DeVore.

"They've been what I think is the best hitting team in the conference all year, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do some pretty impressive things at state just based on their ability to hit the ball, and at the end, you feel bad for losing, and certainly I wasn't ready for the season to end, and I know the kids weren't, but at the same time, we faced some teams that were pretty focused at district and you've got to hand it to them for how well they played, both Nampa and Columbia were playing great baseball down the stretch."

Nampa, the number six seed going into District, knocked off third-seeded Mountain Home, number two seed Emmett, and then beat top-seeded Bishop Kelly in the championship game.

Columbia, the number four seed, knocked off Mountain Home, then beat Emmett for third place.

Coach DeVore is proud of this year's squad that came back from a 0-10 start to finish 12-15 overall.

"I'm definitely proud of the kids. It was a rough start, but they didn't let that eat them up, and they certainly battled, and they were battling all the way to the end of the season."

DeVore loses just three seniors to graduation, and with the success of the JV team, he believes the future is definitely bright for Tiger baseball.

"Especially when you consider the fact that it was a young team, and the JV finished with a very impressive record and won the district tournament for themselves, and there's a lot of young kids on that team, so the program is certainly healthy, but you take it year-by-year, because you never know when you're going to face injuries, or, living in a military town, when kids are going to transfer and those sort of things.

"I'm certainly optimistic, and really, it comes back to what quality kids we have in the program, both athletically and just their approach to life, their personalities and them as students.

"I'm proud of the kids we are able to coach right now in baseball, they're just some good quality kids, quality individuals."