Tigers sweep Columbia during season opener

The Mountain Home Tigers got their baseball season off to a good start last week as they swept their conference series against the Columbia Wildcats.

Mountain Home 2, Columbia 1

The Tigers hosted Columbia last Thursday at Tiger Field with the season opener turning into a pitching duel between Mountain Home's Jared Day and Columbia's Mitch Dardis.

Mountain Home fans had a scare in the first inning when Tigers veteran Jake Hennessey went to the ground, swinging at a pitch he fouled off. Hennessey dislocated his kneecap and will be out indefinitely.

The Tigers pushed across two runs in the third inning on three hits with Ryan Ichyama knocking in a run on a ground-out and Skyler Podesek singling in the other.

Meanwhile, Tigers senior pitcher Jared Day limited the Wildcats to just one hit through six innings in his first outing. He loaded the bases in the seventh, giving up two hits and hitting a batter before walking in a run. Gage Curtis came in to strike out the next batter to get the save and preserve the 2-1 victory.

"I thought we responded to some early adversity really well," said Tigers head coach Mark Cotton. "Jake Hennessey, a four-year starter for us, goes down on his first at-bat. It would have been real easy for the team to get down, but they just rallied around and found ways to come together and make things happen."

Ichiyama, who's not normally a four-hitter, stepped into Hennessey's spot and found a way "to put the ball in play and give us a chance," the coach added. It helped the team move some runners.

"The obvious thing is Jared Day; he carried us through," Cotton said. "You don't like a guy to throw that much early in the season, but he's a senior and he's got broad shoulders and he showed it tonight. I thought all around our senior leadership really stepped up."

Mountain Home had seven hits in the ball game with Skyler Podesek and Joe Gutierrez both getting two with Podesek hitting a double and an RBI. Danny Brescia, Austin Bodily and Alex Rodriguez also had hits with Ichiyama adding an RBI.

Day got the win, giving up just three hits while striking out seven while Gage Curtis got the save.

Mountain Home 8, Columbia 5

Traveling to Columbia for their first away game of the season, the Tigers battled back from a 2-0 deficit to go up 8-2 and withstood a bases-loaded seventh for the Wildcats on Friday to finish the conference sweep.

Alex Rodriguez had a shaky first inning on the mound at Columbia, giving up two runs, two hits and walking two. Once he settled down, he retired 14 batters in a row until the sixth inning when he walked three and gave up three unearned runs as the Wildcats cut the Tigers lead to three.

Gage Curtis pitched the seventh, and got in trouble when a hit, a hit batter and a walk loaded the bases with one out. However, he settled down and struck out two straight batters to end the game and pick up his second save.

"It was one of those weird games early in the year where I don't think everybody's on their game," Coach Cotton said after the game. "I think that game could have been ended a little sooner if the umpire had pulled the trigger a couple times later on in the game. But I think that's good for us to face that kind of adversity and see how we respond -- things that are out of our control."

The coach credited Rodriguez' job "of keeping his head straight" on the mound and at the plate.

"I think I was most impressed with our ability to hit the ball," Cotton said. "Early in the season, to be able to move the ball around and doing the things that we're doing right now, that's a good sign to be doing that this early."

Austin Bodily had three hits for the Tigers, including a double, and drove in three runs and scored two. Danny Brescia had two hits and scored two runs, Alex Burke had a two-run double, Alex Rodriguez had an RBI-single, Skyler Podesek also had a hit while Gage Curtis added an RBI.

Rodriguez got the win, going six innings while striking out 11 batters. Curtis recorded his second straight save, shutting down Columbia in the seventh inning.

The Tigers have a conference series with Nampa this week, hosting the Bulldogs on Thursday, March 15, before they travel to Rodeo Park in Nampa on Friday.

"I don't know a lot about 'em, I think they're a little bit young this year," Cotton said regarding the Bulldogs. "But in the 4A, you can't take anyone lightly, and like I told these guys, we haven't won anything yet. We've got off to a great start and that's a lot of be excited about, but you've got to leave those two wins in the past and start focusing on next week, and hopefully, we can get off to a really good start this year."

Both Nampa games have 5 p.m. start times. The Tigers host the Bulldogs for two on Saturday with the first game starting at 11 a.m.