Tigers come up short in quest for state berth

The Mountain Home Tigers bounced back from their district tourney opener loss to Skyview by ousting Columbia and Caldwell, but fell short against Emmett in the third-place game that would have qualified them for the State 4A Baseball Tournament.

Skyview 11, Mountain Home 1

Mountain Home went into Monday's District III 4A Baseball Tournament opener against second-seeded Skyview as the number seven seed. They had been swept by the Hawks during the regular season, but had played a tough 6-3 ball game with them on April 18 at Skyview. The third time did not prove to be the charm as Skyview won in five, 11-1.

Skyview jumped on Mountain Home starting pitcher Levi Abrahamson for six runs in an inning and a third, and led 8-0 after two innings.

Mountain Home scored an unearned run in the third inning but could get no more the rest of the way. They were only outhit 8-5, but fell to the Hawks.

Mountain Home Tiger baseball coach Mark Cotton was disappointed in their effort against Skyview.

"We'd better come out with an entirely different mentality tomorrow. I feel like out guys came out there intimidated from the start, and they played tentative, and it showed. They outhit us by three hits, and beat us, 11-1, so that kind of tells the whole story."

John Kennison had two hits for the Tigers. Danny Brescia, Skyler Podesek and Skylar Quintal also had hits. Podesek had an RBI.

Levi Abrahamson suffered his seventh loss of the season.

Mountain Home 5, Columbia 3

The loss to Skyview put the Tigers in the consolation bracket, sending them to Columbia on Tuesday to face the third-seeded Wildcats, who had been upset by six-seeded Emmett. Mountain Home prevailed 5-3, to oust the Wildcats from the double-elimination tournament.

It was another meeting between Columbia's Joe Hull and Mountain Home's Zach Petersen. Petersen had bested Hull 1-0, in a great pitching duel on March 21 in Mountain Home. This game was scoreless until Columbia scored in the bottom of the fourth.

Mountain Home tied it with a run in the top of the fifth and went up 3-1 in the top of the sixth, but the Wildcats tied it with two in the bottom half of the sixth.

Jesse Rodriguez smacked Mountain Home's first home run of the season in the top of the seventh, a two-run shot, to give the Tigers a 5-3 lead.

Skylar Quintal, who had come on in relief to put out the Wildcat rally in the sixth, shut out Columbia in the seventh to give the Tigers a 5-3 win.

"It's amazing how we can go from playing so poorly last night (against Skyview) to playing the game that we played tonight," said Coach Cotton. "I thought we had guys step up all over the place -- Jesse Rodriguez with his home run, and Zach Petersen getting us into the sixth inning -- just all the way around. I thought we executed and we did the little things right. We tried to give it away late, but we showed a lot of resiliency and made plays when we had to."

Danny Brescia had two hits for the Tigers against Columbia. Jesse Rodriguez had a two-run home run, and Skyler Podesek, Jesse Cobos and Tyler McCall also had hits. Skylar Quintal had two RBIs.

Quintal picked up the win in relief to improve to 4-0 on the season.

Tigers 10, Cougars 4

The Columbia win put the Tigers in the consolation semi-finals against Caldwell, with the district tourney moving to Mountain Home for the rest of the event. Mountain Home had clinched a spot in the district tourney by beating Caldwell just eight days before. They would make it two straight over the Cougars, ending Caldwell's season.

Mountain Home jumped out to a 5-0 lead and led 10-1 after five innings. They held on to eliminate the Cougars 10-4.

"The last two days we've really played a good brand of baseball and we've had great pitching performances," said Coach Cotton after the game.

"Levi Abrahamson was huge for us today on the mound," the coach added. "He gave us more than we even thought he was going to give us as far as, you know, he threw the other day, and he went deep in the game and he threw tons of strikes. Our bats have really come alive and we're playing with our instincts, so we can't let Friday be too big of a moment for us."

John Kennison, Danny Brescia, Skyler Podesek, Jesse Rodriguez and Teddy Reaume all had two hits for the Tigers. Podesek had two RBIs.Kennison and Reaume had doubles and RBIs, while Brescia and Rodriguez both scored two runs.

Levi Abrahamson pitched into the sixth inning, striking out five, to record his first win of the season.

Huskies 7, Tigers 3

The Caldwell win put the Tigers into Friday's third-place game for the second straight year, but like last year, Mountain Home came up short, losing to Emmett 7-3.

Zach Petersen started for Mountain Home, and struck out the side in the first inning, but a Tiger error opened the door for six Emmett runs in the second.

Mountain Home managed a run without a hit in the third inning and added two more runs in the fifth to cut it to 6-3.

Emmett scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-3.

Mountain Home managed to load the bases in the top of the seventh, and had the tying run at the plate, but were unable to score any runs, and Emmett won 7-3.

Coach Cotton thought the six-run second did them in.

"In the last couple weeks we've been able to overcome that big inning even when they've happened, but we couldn't today," he said. "We fought back and chipped away, but if we don't give up that big inning, it's a 3-2 ball game and we're going to state.

"There were a lot of things in that big inning -- we gave some free passes, but I probably should have pulled the trigger a little sooner on a pitching switch," the coach added. "But you can't really look at it like that. These guys fought so hard, when you think about where we've come -- a big sophomore class, and for these guys to fight back the way that they have, it says a lot for them, and I couldn't be any more proud of these guys, going to state or not, I think they've proved a lot this year."

John Kennison had two hits and an RBI against Emmett, and Danny Brescia, Levi Abrahamson and Teddy Reaume also had hits.

Zach Petersen suffered the loss, though just one of the six runs he gave up were earned.

Coach Cotton loses some good seniors, but looks ahead to the future.

"We lose Skyler Podesek, who I had him on the Royals (American Legion team) as an eighth grader, and he led the team in hitting, and Skylar Quintal and Jesse Rodriguez and John Kennison and all those guys," he said. "They're phenomenal players and they're good people and I felt like they all progressed, and when you look back at your seniors, it's always fun to see where they were as freshmen and see where they've come. They've come such a long ways, they will be missed next year.

"The nice thing is the core of this team is sophomores, so we have a bright future ahead of us," the coach added. "They have the Legion season ahead of them, and a good winter for us to get a bunch of work in. I think we're going to make some huge steps, and for the most part, there were times this year that I felt like we played most of our sophomores in the lineup, and we were successful that way, so there's a bright future for our program."

The Tigers finish the season 11-15 overall.