Tigers open baseball season with pair of losses

The Mountain Home Tigers opened their baseball season with non-conference road losses to Vallivue and Canyon Ridge.

Vallivue 11, Mountain Home 1

The Tigers opened their baseball season last Wednesday at Vallivue, losing to the 5A Falcons, 11-1, in five innings.

Mountain Home scored its only run in the top of the first inning. Vallivue scored three times in the first and third innings and added five more in the fourth to win by the 10-run rule in five.

Zach Petersen and Jesse Cobos had the Tigers only two hits of the game. Bailey Miller-Hodge scored their only run.

Cobos suffered the loss, going two innings, giving up just two hits but walking five. Miller-Hodge pitched two innings of relief, giving up just three hits.

"It was a close game through the third inning," said Tigers baseball coach Matt Bundy. "(Jesse) Cobos threw well and Bailey (Miller-Hodge) pitched well also. Some first game jitters showed up offensively and defensively, and we let some runs score that shouldn't have. They threw their ace, and he shut down the back half of our order pretty well."

Canyon Ridge 5,

Mountain Home 4

The Tigers traveled to Canyon Ridge High School in Twin Falls on Friday and played a much better game, but they came up short in a 5-4 contest with the River Hawks.

Both teams pushed across a run in the first inning, but Canyon Ridge added another in the second to go up, 2-1.

Mountain Home scored twice in the fourth to take a one-run lead, but the River Hawks answered with two in the sixth to regain the lead, 4-3.

The Tigers tied it with a run in the top of the seventh, but Canyon Ridge scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh for the win.

Bailey Miller-Hodge, Jesse Cobos and Kai Corbett led the Tiger bats with two hits apiece. Cobos had a double and RBI, and Corbett also knocked in a run. Cody Blakemore, Curran Price and Kyle Accaregui also had hits with Price's a double for Mountain Home.

Blakemore threw five innings, scattering five hits while striking out six batters. Tyler McCall went an inning and two-thirds, suffering the loss when the River Hawks scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh.

"It was a tight game -- no one ever led by more than one run," Coach Bundy said following the Canyon Ridge game. "(Cody) Blakemore pitched a gem, but we lost a tight one in the bottom of the seventh inning. Bailey Miller-Hodge is leading us offensively. He is swinging the bat great. We are cleaning up a few things defensively, and we will be winning some games."

The Tigers hosted Wood River on Tuesday and host Filer on Friday at 4:30 p.m.