Skinner throws pair for shutouts for Lady Tigers

Mountain Home Lady Tiger freshman pitcher Nickayla Skinner continued to impress last week, throwing shutouts against Emmett and Middleton.

The Lady Tigers stepped out of conference play on Saturday, traveling down to Twin Falls where they lost to a good Lady Bruin team.

Mtn. Home 2

Emmett 0

Kelsey Hopkins and Tawni Downen knocked in runs while Nickayla Skinner scattered seven hits as the Mountain Home Lady Tigers returned to conference play with a 2-0 win over Emmett at Eastside Park last Tuesday.

"It was a very nice win for the girls," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Joy Memmelaar. "It got them back on the winning side after the (Glenns Ferry) loss during Spring Break.

"We still have a little bit of work to do. Our defense, although we had a couple of errors, they were not deadly errors that affected the game. We still need to pick our hitting up a little bit."

Nickayla Skinner struck out four batters and had no walks. She also had two hits, as did Kelsey Hopkins and Tawni Downen, Hopkins and Downen each knocking Ashley Kipp.

Mtn. Home 1

Middleton 0

Nickayla Skinner threw her second straight shutout Thursday, and homered in the fourth inning as the Lady Tigers beat Middleton, in conference softball at Eastside Park.

"It was an excellent ball game that could have broken open for either team at any time," said Coach Memmelaar after the game.

"Everybody was kind of hitting, but we didn't get any runners across the plate as often as we would have liked. If it wasn't for Nick and her home run, it would probably have stayed 0-0, and we'd probably still be there!"

Nickayla Skinner limited Middleton to just four hits while striking out four to improve to 7-1 on the season. She had two hits in the game, including the home run. Kim Hamilton, Ashley Kipp, Liz Griffeath, Sammy Dodge and Kelsey Hopkins also had hits.

Twin Falls 5

Mtn. Home 0

The Lady Tigers stepped out of conference play on Saturday, traveling down to Twin Falls where they lost 5-0.

The Lady Bruins' ace, Amber Peterson, limited Mountain Home to just three hits while striking out 15.

"They are a very good team," said Coach Memmelaar of the Lady Bruins. "Their pitcher is very solid. She puts the ball where it needs to go, and she's got some speed behind it. She's by far the best pitcher we've seen all year.

"We held them for the most part, and we didn't lose to a lesser team, we lost to a great team. We'll see them again in two weeks, and hopefully, we'll do a little bit better against them, especially on the offensive side."

Ashley Christiansen, Nickayla Skinner and Sheena Nelsen had the only hits for Mountain Home.

Skinner suffered the loss, but gave up just eight hits while striking out six and walking two.

The Lady Tigers played at Nampa yesterday (Tuesday) and go to Kuna on Friday to begin the second round against conference teams.