Mountain Home falls to Skyview in 4-11 shellacking

The Mountain Home Tigers dropped their third straight conference baseball game Thursday in a 4-11 shellacking at home against the Skyview Hawks.

Errors committed in the field cost the young Tigers squad dearly, with five of them leading to eight unearned runs.

Mountain Home took a 1-0 lead in the second inning as Ronnie Young singled in a run. Skyview responded to tie the game in the fourth then took the lead with four runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take a commanding 7-1 lead.

The Tigers plated three runs in the sixth, including two on Skyler Podesek's double, to cut the deficit to three. But Skyview added four more in the top of the seventh to clinch the win.

"Alex (Rodriguez) actually threw a heck of a game and gave us a chance to win. We just didn't play defense behind him," said Tigers' Coach Mark Cotton. "You commit five errors and only have two hits in the game, and you're not going to win a lot of ball games that way."

The coach added the team needed to come out with a different focus in its next contest.

"We have to have better approaches at the plate, and we've got to make the routine plays defensively," Cotton said. "I think that was the difference in the game tonight. Skyview didn't do anything spectacular at the plate, but they put the ball in play and forced us to make plays. We didn't do that, and with us having only two hits, you aren't forcing anyone to make plays on you."

The Tigers represent a "hungry" baseball club with the potential to be a good baseball team, the coach added.

"We've got to keep reevaluating things and moving lineup and finding ways to try and get some wins," Cotton said.

Mountain Home managed just two hits off Skyview pitcher Toby Anderson, who struck out nine Tigers on the night. Podesek had his two-run double while Ronny Young added an RBI-single.

Rodriguez suffered his second straight loss on the mound, despite giving up just one earned run in five innings of work and striking out six. Skyler Quintal and Anthony Castillo also pitched relief innings.

The Tigers traveled to Skyview on Friday for the second game of the conference series, but rain, sleet and snow that fell that afternoon continued before game time and made the field soggy and wet, forcing a postponement. The teams will play a make-up game at a later date.

Meanwhile, the Tigers play in the Buck's Bags Tournament this week at Borah's Wigle Field with two games on Thursday, starting at 1 p.m. against Ontario and again at 3:30 p.m. to take on Timberline.

The Tigers play Minico at 10:30 a.m. Friday before they face Borah at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. All games will be at Borah's Wigle Field.