Tiger boys can't pull off upset in state tourney, done in two

The Mountain Home Tigers almost pulled off the upset of the State 4A Baseball Tournament in their opener against Minico, but the Spartans battled back to win, 5-4.

The Tigers also enjoyed early success against Rigby before losing to the Trojans, 10-4, to be eliminated from the tournament.

Minico 5

Tigers 4

Alex Hoffman singled in two runs in the top of the seventh inning to put the Tigers ahead 4-3, but the Spartans battled back in the bottom of the seventh to win, 5-4.

Alex Hoffman had a two-run double to put the Tigers up, 2-0, in the first inning. It stayed that way until Minico scored three runs in the fourth to take the lead.

"The boys played well," said Tiger baseball coach Travis DeVore of the Minico game.

"Jake (Hiler) threw as good a game as he possibly could against a team that came into the tournament 25-2, and we had a chance to win, as we came back.

"Alex Hoffman had all of our RBIs in that game and had two big hits -- one in the first and one in the seventh -- and we certainly felt like we had a chance to win it, but that Minico team's impressive."

Ricky Lee and Alex Hoffman both had two hits, Hoffman had four RBIs. Cal Vivier, Chris Rau, Jake Hiler and Ricky Baker also had hits.

Hiler suffered the loss, giving up 10 hits while striking out three and walking two.

Rigby 10

Tigers 4

The loss to Minco put the Tigers in the consolation bracket against Rigby, which had opened with a loss to Skyview. The Tigers went up 3-0 early, but the Trojans battled back and scored five runs in the seventh to pull away for a 10-4 win.

Cal Vivier, Alex Hoffman, Chris Rau and Jordan Cisna all had two hits, Rau had an RBI. Ricky Lee and John Murdorf also had hits.

Chris Rau suffered the loss, pitching five innings, with relief help from Gabe Anderson and Eric Christiansen.

"We came out fired up," said coach DeVore of the Rigby game. "It's tough to be emotionally strong after a rough late inning loss like we had the night before, but we played well. We put three runs up in the first inning, but just ran out of energy, ran out of gas or however you want to put it, just didn't have the stuff to finish it off, but I'm proud of the kids. I've really enjoyed being around them this year. It's a sad way to end the season, but certainly it was a great year with them."

The Tigers finished the season 17-12 overall.

Coach Devore loses eight seniors that he feels will be hard to replace.

"They're a group of kids that I think a lot of people in the community feel connected to just because some have coached them and they've played together for so long."

Coach DeVore feels he has a good nucleus coming back next year to build on.

"It's going to be tough to fill all those shoes, but we have five quality kids coming back on varsity that all got a lot of time, so there's certainly going to be a core to work around."