Lady Tigers go two and out at district

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The softball season came to a close for the Mountain Home Lady Tigers last week at the District III 4A Softball Tournament at Kuna with losses to Vallivue and Caldwell.

Vallivue 5

Mountain Home 4

(8 innings)

It was almost like a replay of last year's district, when Mountain Home lost two heartbreaking extra inning ball games at the district tourney, one of them to Vallivue.

Ali Hillman and Vallivue's Jessica Williams were involved in a great 1-1 pitching duel through five innings last Monday. Mountain Home's lone run coming on a home run by Hillman.

Williams gave her team a 2-1 lead with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, but the Lady Tigers tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the seventh when Kim Hamilton, who had reached on an error, came home on Ashley Kipp's ground-out.

Hillman held Vallivue scoreless in the bottom of the seventh, and the game went extra innings.

Brei Draper doubled in a run in the top of the eighth and scored on an error, as the Lady Tigers led, 4-2, going to the bottom of the eighth.

Vallivue got back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game, and then, with two out, scored the winning run on a single by Dana Mitchell.

"That was a close game and a tough game," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Joy Memmelaar in radio comments after the game. "The girls held in there and came back and managed to go ahead in the eighth, but then Vallivue came through with some hits --I mean, we didn't give anything away, they smacked the ball and earned those runs -- it was a good game."

Ali Hillman and Brei Draper both had two hits and an RBI for Mountain Home, Hillman had a home run and a double, Draper a double. Sheena Nelsen and Krista Gillaspy also had hits for Mountain Home.

It was another heartbreaking loss for Ali Hillman, who struck out 10 -- her eighth game with 10 or more strikeouts -- and gave up eight hits as she dropped to 8-10 on the season.

Caldwell 9

Mountain Home 3

Caldwell took advantage of a walk, two hit batters, three hits and an error to score five runs in the first inning Tuesday, as they ousted the Lady Tigers, 9-3.

Ali Hillman's solo home run in the second was Mountain Home's only hit off Caldwell's Ashley Wolff until Krista Gillaspy singled in the fifth. The Lady Tigers got two more hits in the seventh, and were able to score two runs on a single by Kim Hamilton to make it a 9-3 final.

"It's hard to come back from a five-run spot in the first inning," said Coach Memmelaar. "Ali's home run gave us our one run, but we didn't seem to be able to get anyone over until right at the end in the seventh. It was just a little bit too little, too late, so it's a heartbreaker."

Mountain Home only got four hits off Ashley Wolff, and Krista Gillaspy had two of them. Ali Hillman had a solo home run and RBI, and Kim Hamilton had a two-run single.

Hillman fell to 8-11, while striking out nine, walking four and hitting two, and giving up eight hits.

The Lady Tigers finish the year, 10-14 overall, and despite going out of the district tournament in two straight, Coach Memmelaar thought it was a good season.

"We had a good season. We accomplished a lot of different things this year. We were able to do some base running things towards the end of the season that we hadn't been able to do in the past, and all in all, it was a good season for the girls."

Memmelaar indicated she loses three starting seniors off this year's squad, with some big shoes to fill.

"I have some big shoes to fill. We lose Ali (Hillman) Brei (Draper) and Carmen (Santy), and they've done a great job for us this year at pitcher, first base and shortstop, but the future looks very good.

"We have a lot of younger girls that are coming out of the fast pitch league from the Elmore County league, and they'll be stepping up, and we have a good core of girls remaining, the bulk of our infield and outfield should be here for next year, so that looks good for us."

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