Excelsior Springs varsity baseball coach Aaron Holst and his Tigers are back home again.

The Tigers have a three-game homestand scheduled this weekend. They’ll face Ruskin at 4 p.m. Friday, followed by a triangular with Smithville and Pleasant Hill Saturday. Starting times for the Saturday games are 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., respectively.

Excelsior Springs (7-10) enters the homestand after a nine-game road swing. The stretch started with losses to Smithville April 3, and to Liberty and Willard April 6 at Liberty.

The Tigers then went 1-2 in the Northland Tournament. After opening April 9 with a 4-2 loss to Winnetonka at Winnetonka High School, they romped to a 10-3 victory over Fort Osage April 10, also at Winnetonka.

It was Excelsior Springs’ second win over Fort Osage this season. The Tigers edged the Independence-based school 8-6 March 27 at home.

Pitching from sophomores Kaelan Bedford and Cooper Collins helped Excelsior Springs win the rematch, according to Holst. Bedford, who started, “got us stops on the mound during the early innings, so that our offense could get a foothold,” Host stated Tuesday via email.

Collins had a “tremendous” relief outing, according to Holst.

“We had the chance to get him good and loose in the bullpen, unlike the day before,” he wrote. “He was on point for the final innings.”

The Tigers finished the tournament April 11 with a 13-3 loss to Oak Park. But they avenged that defeat by edging the Northmen 8-6 April 13 in one of two games played that day in Jefferson City.

Baserunning helped Excelsior Springs get the win, Holst stated. The Tigers stole eight bases, he noted, including three stolen bases by Kota Triplett, who also scored two runs. Other keys Holst cited included RBI contributions from Bedford, Collins, Landon Clark and Hunter Scoma.

The Tigers lost 3-1 to Jefferson City-based Helias Catholic in their other April 13 outing. Brody Querry, Brayden Lewis and Glaspy pitched well against the Crusaders, Holst stated.

“Unfortunately, the innings that we did create traffic on the bases, we didn’t get the big RBI hit,” he commented. “We ran ourselves into a couple of outs as well and were snakebit one inning by the double play ball. All in all, a pretty solid Saturday of baseball for us going on the road against two solid, bigger schools.”

Oak Park, based in Kansas City, is a Class 6 school. Helias is in Class 5. Excelsior Springs is in Class 4.

The Tigers concluded their road swing Wednesday by facing another larger school – North Kansas City, a Class 6 program. Excelsior Springs cruised 14-3.