Tigers win one, lose two more

The Mountain Home Tigers picked up their first conference baseball win of the season last week but let two other games get away from them.

Mountain Home 2, Bishop Kelly 1

Mountain Home picked up its first conference win of the season as they edged the Bishop Kelly Knights last Tuesday at Bishop Kelly High School in Boise.

Jesse Cobos outdueled the Knights Cooper Doke, each pitcher giving up just three hits. Cobos struck out 12 Bishop Kelly batters while Doke fanned six Tigers.

Mountain Home's two runs came in the second inning, the first on a double steal and the second on a single by Teddy Reaume. Besides Reaume's RBI-single, Bailey Miller-Hodge and Curran Price also had its for the Tigers.

"(Jesse) Cobos threw an absolute gem," said Tigers baseball coach Matt Bundy. "We generated a couple of runs in the second inning with some small ball. Tyler McCall saw an opportunity to take third on a bunt when the defense left the base open. Then he scored on a throw to second when we stole the base. Teddy Reaume made some great catches in center (field) to save some runs, and Kai Corbett is playing solid baseball. Cobos ended the gem with a strikeout when B.K. had two runners in scoring position. This was a great win for our guys."

Snapping a four-game losing skid, the win improved the Tigers to 1-3 in conference and 3-7 overall.

Middleton 5, Mountain Home 3

Mountain Home came up short Thursday in their home conference game with the Middleton Vikings, losing 5-3.

Cody Blakemore and Zach Sams both matched zeros for five innings, but the Vikings chased Blakemore with three runs in the top of the sixth.

The Tigers countered with three in the bottom of the sixth, taking advantage of three hit batters, one scoring on an error, and two on a double by Teddy Reaume.

Zach Petersen took over on the mound for the Tigers in the seventh but walked the two batters he faced. Jesse Cobos came on with nobody out. He got a fly out, but one run scored on a wild pitch, and Middleton pitcher Zach Sams helped himself out, singling in another run, as the Vikings took a 5-3 lead to the bottom of the seventh.

The Tigers got the tying runs on with nobody out on the bottom of the seventh. But a fly out, a base-running error that led to an out, and a strikeout ended the Tiger threat as they fell to Middleton.

"We had some younger players make some base running mistakes early that cost us a run and an out," Coach Bundy said. "We play a perfect game against Bishop Kelly, and today we played a decent game. But you just can't make mistakes in these close games, and we made a few. We're going to learn from them and, we've been playing these one and two-run games all season, and we've just got to win these one-run games."

Mountain Home had just four hits in the game. Teddy Reaume had a two-run double, Bailey Miller-Hodge, Tyler McCall and Kai Corbett also had hits. Zach Petersen suffered the loss.

Middleton 6, Mountain Home 3

The Tigers traveled to Middleton on Friday to face the Vikings again, hoping for a different result. But they fell to the Vikings, 6-3.

David Welle keyed a three-run fourth inning for the Tigers that gave them a 3-2 lead. Welle singled in two runs in the inning, but the Vikings struck for four in the fifth to regain the lead and held on for the win.

"We are competitive in every game and have shown we can win," said Coach Bundy after the game. "We just need to string some wins together."

Besides David Welle's two-run single, Zach Petersen had two hits for the Tigers, and Tyler McCall and Kai Corbett also had hits. Bailey Miller-Hodge threw four innings for the Tigers, giving up two unearned runs. Jesse Cobos, who pitched the final two innings, suffered the loss.

The Tigers, now 1-5 in conference and 3-9 overall, have three games this week. They hosted Kuna on Tuesday, travel to Caldwell on Thursday, and host Caldwell on Friday. All games start at 5 p.m.