Tigers earn win after opening loss

The Mountain Home Tiger baseball team came away with a split of their first two games of the season, losing at Kuna but winning at Emmett last week.

Kuna 12, Mountain Home 5

An eight-run third inning by the Kavemen was the difference at Kuna Thursday as the Tigers lost to the Kavemen, 12-5, in their conference and season opener.

Mountain Home scored a run in the top of the first, but Kuna scored two in the bottom half of the inning to go up 2-1.

The Tigers took advantage of three walks and a hit to score three runs in the top of the second to take a 4-2 lead, but Kuna answered with two unearned runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 4-4.

The Kavemen got to Tiger starter Levi Abrahamson for eight runs in the third as they sent nine batters to the plate before an out was recorded. Skylar Quintal came on in relief to get the final two outs of the inning, as Kuna went up,12-4.

Quintal held Kuna scoreless the rest of the way, but the Tigers managed just one run in the final frames, as the Kavemen won, 12-5, in a game shortened to six innings because of darkness.

"It was an extremely disappointing loss," said Tigers coach Mark Cotton after the game.

"I thought we played really well in our jamboree last week, and we have high hopes going into this season. There's no doubt we're a young team, but I expect us to make the routine plays at the varsity level.

The Tigers had just two hits in the game, both of them by John Kennison, who drove in two runs and scored two as well. Skylar Quintal also knocked in two runs.

Levi Abrahamson suffered the loss, though just six of the 12 runs were earned. Quintal pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, giving up just two hits while striking out four batters.

Mountain Home 5, Emmett 4

Mountain Home rallied for four runs in the sixth inning to defeat the Emmett Huskies 5-4 Friday at Emmett in conference baseball.

Mountain Home took advantage of two walks to start the game to take a 1-0 lead in the first inning, John Kennison scoring on a ground-out by Skyler Podesek.

Emmett got to Tiger starting pitcher Zach Peterson for three runs on four hits in the second inning to take a 3-1 lead, then added an unearned run in the third to go up 4-1.

The score stayed at 4-1 until Emmett starter Hunter Larson walked Zach Peterson and Skylar Quintal to start the sixth, then was relieved by Jordan Sulgoode.

Skyler Podesek greeted Sulgoode with a single up the middle that scored Peterson and Cobos followed with a single that scored Quintal to make it 4-3. The Emmett catcher had trouble fielding Sulgoode's pitches in the dirt, and the result was Podesek and Cobos both scoring to put the Tigers up 5-4.

Emmett's lead-off batter in the bottom of the sixth reached on an error and Tiger coach Mark Cotton brought in Skylar Quintal to relieve Peterson.

Quintal retired the Huskies in order in the sixth and seventh as the Tigers won 5-4.

"It was not what we expected after yesterday," Coach Cotton said after the Emmett game. "I think we improved in a lot of areas.

"I think offensively is where we struggled," the coach added. "We actually played a better defensive game, and when you play defense, you keep yourselves in ball games, and that's what happened, they let us hang around. We made some plays that we needed to make and they let us hang around and we came back and capitalized when we had to."

Mountain Home doubled their hit output over the Kuna game, getting four hits. Jesse Cobos had two hits, an RBI and scored a run. Skyler Podesek had a hit and two RBIs, and Skylar Quintal had a hit and scored a run.

Zach Peterson picked up the win, striking out four in five innings of work. Skylar Quintal had three strikeouts in two scoreless, hitless innings of relief to get the save.

The Tigers took a 1-1 record into a busy week. They were home against Nampa on Tuesday, travel to Bishop Kelly on Thursday, and are home against Skyview on Friday. They then host the Buhl Indians for two non-conference games Saturday. All weekday games will start at 5 p.m. Saturday's doubleheader starts at 11 a.m.