BUTTE — Butte's Expedition League baseball team put up plenty of runs in its first home game but still came up short.
Zach Tallerman batted in four runners and Mark Taylor added three RBI as the Canyon County Spuds out-slugged the Mining City Tommyknockers 16-12 in a game that ended just shy of four hours in length.
The Tommyknockers, who won four of five games on the road to open their inaugural season, dropped to 4-2 in the first game of a six-game home stand that extends through Sunday. Butte will play the Spuds on Wednesday and Thursday before facing the Casper Horseheads the next three days.
Butte was led by David Melfi who hit a three-run home run in the first inning and Ren Yokoyama who had a pair of RBI.
After using Melfi's homer to narrow the Spuds' 4-0 first-inning lead, the Tommyknockers built an 8-6 lead before Canyon County unloaded six runs in the top of the sixth inning to grab a 12-8 lead.
Butte responded with three runs in the bottom of the sixth but was unable to close the gap.
The Tommyknockers and Spuds face off again at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
