Tigers finish regular season with needed wins

The Mountain Home Tigers head into the District III 4A Baseball Tournament on a modest win streak, picking up wins over Caldwell and Middleton last week.

They went into last week's games on the brink of not making the district tourney, but the wins not only secured them a berth in the tournament, but also helped them move up a notch to the seventh seed.

Mountain Home 18, Caldwell 11

A nine-run fourth inning helped Mountain Home regain a lead and go on to an 18-11 win over Caldwell last Tuesday night at Tiger Field in Mountain Home.

Mountain Home led 7-5 heading into the fourth inning, only to see the Cougars plate five runs in the top of the fourth to take a 10-7 lead. But the Tigers then erupted for nine runs in the bottom of the inning to lead 16-10 and go on to an 19-11 win.

"It was a huge win," said a happy Tiger head baseball coach Mark Cotton after the game. "We were all bunched up there from five to nine (in the standings), and that (win) clinches us a spot in the (district) tournament, and we're really excited about it. I think we can do some damage down the stretch, if we keep hitting the way we're hitting and if we can clean up some things on defense."

Skylar Quintal and Jesse Cobos both had three hits. Quintal drove in two runs. Cobos scored three runs and knocked in one and had a double.

Zach Petersen and Tyler McCall had hits and both drove in three runs. Petersen had a double and McCall scored two runs. John Kennison and Skyler Podesek had hits and two RBIs each. Podesek had a double. Danny Brescia and Jesse Rodriguez also had hits. Brescia drove in a run and Rodriguez scored two runs. Levi Abrahamson drove in a run and Teddy Reaume and Daniel Welle both scored two runs.

Skylar Quintal, the third of three Tiger pitchers, picked up the win to improve to 3-0 on the season.

Tigers 10, Vikings 9

For the second night in a row, Mountain Home saw an early lead disappear, but once again rallied to win, holding off the Middleton Vikings 10-9 last Wednesday night at Tiger Field.

Mountain Home led 6-1, through four innings but Middleton put up seven runs in the top of the fifth to grab an 8-6 lead. It was short-lived, however, as the Tigers pushed across three runs in the bottom half of the fifth to regain the lead 9-8. The Tigers increased it to 10-8 with a run in the sixth.

Middleton scored one run in the top of the seventh and had the bases loaded with two out. Tiger closer Skylar Quintal came in and struck out the next batter to preserve the 10-9 win.

"It looks like we're starting to play good baseball at the right time of the season, and if we can avoid the big innings, we really like our chances at district," said Coach Cotton after the game. "We've been able to overcome some adversity in these last couple of games and have shown some heart, and it looks like we're starting to hit our stride going into Districts."

Skylar Quintal and Teddy Reaume both had three hits for the Tigers. Reaume drove in three runs, Quintal had two doubles, scored three runs and an RBI. Jesse Cobos and John Kennison both had two hits, Cobos had a double and three RBI. Zach Petersen and Skyler Podesek also had hits, Petersen had an RBI, Podesek doubled. Jesse Rodriguez, the third of four pitchers, earned the win to improve to 1-2 on the season. Skylar Quintal earned his second save.

Mountain Home finished the conference season tied for fifth place with Emmett and Caldwell at 6-10, teams they split with during the season. With the tie-breaker system, the Tigers ended up as the number seven seed going into this week's district tournament, opening Monday at Skyview against the Hawks.

Coach Cotton was optimistic facing Skyview.

"We were competitive against them last time we played them (losing 6-3 at Skyview on April 18), and I really don't even think we brought our best baseball to the field that day....

"So even though they're the two-seed, I think it's a good draw for us, because if we can get a win early, it can give us a lot of confidence, and in reality, all we have to do is win two games in a row to get to state, and we've proved this week that we can do that."

The first two days of the district tourney are played at the higher seeds. Action will be hosted by Mountain Home at Tiger Field today (Wednesday) and Friday, with the third-place and championship games played Friday at 4 and 6 p.m.