Skid continues for Mountain Home's baseball team

The losing streak reached six for the Mountain Home Tigers last week with their doubleheader loss to Jerome and two conference losses to Bishop Kelly.

Jerome 10, Mountain Home 4

Jerome 8, Mountain Home 7

The Jerome Tigers took two games from Mountain Home last Tuesday in a non-conference doubleheader in Mountain Home. The games were a makeup of a doubleheader scheduled on March 17 that was rained out.

In the first game, a six-run third inning by Jerome put the game out of reach before they added four more in the seventh. Mountain Home scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 10-4 final.

Jake Hennessey led Mountain Home at the plate in the first game, getting two hits and driving in a run. Skyler Podesek had a two-run double, and Jessie Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez also had hits.

Jesse Rodriguez pitched into the fifth inning for the Tigers and suffered the loss to drop to 0-2 on the season.

In the second game, Mountain Home fell behind Jerome by four and battled back with four runs in the fourth to tie the game at 7. But Jerome added a run in the fifth, which held up for an 8-7 win.

Skyler Podesek had two hits, including a double, and drove in four runs. Jake Hennessey also had two hits -- one a solo home run. Austin Bodily and Gage Curtis also had hits.

Curtis, the third Tiger pitcher, who took the mound the final four innings, suffered the loss to drop to 0-2 on the season.

Tigers coach Mark Cotton was disappointed in his team's performance against Jerome.

"We weren't very impressive at all," the coach said. "Our mentality, focus -- we just weren't there in the first game. Our base-running was horrible, our approach at the plate was horrible, our defense was horrible. If you don't play just one phase of the game correctly, you're going to lose baseball games.

"Obviously, in the second game we brought it together a little more, and started gaining some momentum," he added.

Bishop Kelly 7, Mountain Home 0

The Tigers hosted Bishop Kelly in a conference encounter Thursday at Tiger field and came up on the short end of a 7-0 contest to the Knights, who remain unbeaten in conference.

Jared Day pitched well against the Knights, going five innings and striking out seven, allowing just three runs. But Mountain Home managed only four hits and never had two base runners on together in any one inning.

Danny Brescia had two of the four Tiger hits, Gage Curtis had a triple and Jared Day also had a hit. Day suffered the loss to drop to 3-2 on the season.

"I don't think the score was really indicative of the game," Coach Cotton said. "We played pretty well today. Our biggest problem was we just couldn't string hits together, and base-running mistakes. If you let up on any one phase of the game, it can cost you."

Bishop Kelly 6, Mountain Home 2

Bishop Kelly made it a conference sweep Friday, downing the Tigers at Bishop Kelly.

The Knights scored two runs in the first inning without the benefit of a hit as Alex Rodriguez struggled finding the strike zone early, loading the bases on walks in the first.

A wild pitch and a groundout scored Bishop Kelly's first two runs. An error and two hits led to two more runs in the second as the Knights took a 4-0 lead.

Alex Rodriguez settled down on the mound from then on and allowed just two unearned runs the rest of the way.

Mountain Home chased the Knights' starter Drew Klassen in the fifth with Gage Curtis' double plating two Tiger runs. The final was 6-2 in favor of Bishop Kelly.

Besides the double by Gage Curtis, Skyler Podesek had Mountain Home's only other hit. Alex Rodriguez, who allowed just one earned run while striking out six and walking five, suffered the loss to fall to 2-4 on the season.

"I think what it comes down to is we had too many walks early in the game," Coach Cotton said. "If you take away those first four runs in the first two innings, it's a 2-2 ball game, and we're heading to extra innings."

Looking back, the coach admitted that the Tigers are not playing their best baseball, and Mountain Home continues to hang close against some of really good teams.

"If we can get back to the basics and have a good week of practice, I truly believe we're going to get back on track," he said.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 5-5 in league play and 5-11 on the season. Mountain Home has a 5 p.m. game at Kuna on Friday before they host the Kavemen on Saturday.

Kuna hasn't been doing that well, Coach Cotton said, but they've had some really close games with everyone they've played.

"They're always scrappy," the coach said. "They move runners well (and) they throw a lot of strikes, so we aren't taking anybody lightly, especially with the way we're playing baseball right now. We've got to go in there intense."

With six games left in the season, "we've got to get out of here with six wins," he added. "That's our goal, and I think it's attainable."