Lady Tigers fall behind Bishop Kelly

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers had hoped to keep pace with Bishop Kelly in SIC 4A conference softball, setting the stage for this week's meeting at Bishop Kelly, but Skyview had other ideas, as the Lady Tigers beat Nampa, but lost to Skyview last week.

They did bounce back with a win at Wood River on Saturday.

Mtn. Home 8

Columbia 2

Mountain Home jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back as they beat Columbia, 8-2, at home last Tuesday.

Ashley Christiansen had two doubles and two RBIs, Ashley Kipp had a hit and RBI. Kim Hamilton, Nickayla Skinner and Liz Griffeath all knocked in runs, and Sammy Dodge, Kelsey Hopkins and Breann Christiansen all had hits. Skinner improved to 10-2, giving up just four hits while striking out 11.

"We hit well today," said Mountain Home softball coach Joy Memmelaar. "They came out ready to play on the offensive side, and defensively, other than a couple of little errors, they played really well.

"Ashley Kipp made a really nice out running down a fly ball in the top of the seventh. Nickayla had a wonderful outing, probably one of her best of the season. They did well."

Skyview 10

Mtn. Home 8

Mountain Home was without their number one pitcher Thursday at Skyview, but their downfall was their defense, which made costly errors as the Lady Tigers fell short to Skyview, 10-8.

Sara Harlan got the start Thursday when Nickayla Skinner was at school working on a freshman school project. The Lady Tigers scored four in the top of the first and Harlan retired Skyview in order in the bottom half, and Mountain Home looked to be breezing to another win.

Skyview changed pitchers in the second, and Pancheri kept the Lady Tigers off the scoreboard in the second.

Skyview used three hits and two costly Mountain Home errors to tie the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the second.

It stayed tied until the top of the fourth when Mountain Home had back-to-back triples by Tiffany Smith and Kim Hamilton to take the lead, 5-4.

Some "seeing-eye hits," got through for Skyview in the bottom of the fourth, along with a bases-clearing triple that led to five runs for the Lady Hawks, who grabbed the lead, 9-5.

Mountain Home scored twice in the top of the fifth to cut it to 9-7, but the Lady Hawks scored another unearned run in the bottom half to make it 10-7.

Mountain Home managed to score once more in the sixth, but that closed out the scoring for both teams, as Skyview prevailed, 10-8.

"Defensively, we didn't do our jobs," said Coach Memmelaar in radio comments after the game. "We gave them six outs in each of the middle three innings, and that hurts!

"Offensively, we hit the ball well. We had a few little dribblers here and there because they were pitching us outside and we were not taking it, we were doing the wrong thing with it, but a couple of the girls who haven't hit in a while got some nice hits. We were out at the plate a couple times, but hey, that happens.

"We just didn't do it defensively.

Sarah pitched a beautiful game today -- she did a great job, but defensively, we didn't do our part. We've got to get better."

Harlan gave up 11 hits, but just five of the 10 runs were earned. She struck out two and walked just one.

Mtn. Home 1

Wood River 0

Mountain Home's Nickayla Skinner and Wood River's Samantha Engel put on a classic pitching duel Saturday at Wood River.

Skinner, who scattered three hits while striking out eight and walking none, doubled in what proved to be the winning run in the top of the seventh inning.

"It was a pitching duel," said Coach Memmelaar after the game.

"Their pitcher did her job, not letting us get many hits, and Nick did her job, not letting them hit. We finally managed to get somebody across the plate -- we left nine on. We managed to get on base, we just weren't getting our job done to score. We had our defense today, but not our offense. We need to make sure we've got both on the same day!"

Kim Hamilton, Ashley Christiansen, Sammy Dodge, Nickayla Skinner and Kelsey Hopkins had hits for Mountain Home. Skinner's double in the seventh scored Ashley Christiansen, who had singled to lead off the inning.

The Lady Tigers improved to 13-5 on the season. They played at Bishop Kelly on Tuesday and go to Emmett on Thursday, and host Twin Falls on Saturday morning at 11 a.m.