Lady Tigers capture district crown

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers are District III 4A Champions in softball.

The Lady Tigers beat Nampa, Emmett and Bishop Kelly to win the district title, and qualify for the State 4A Softball Tournament, which starts tomorrow in Coeur d'Alene.

Mtn. Home 3

Nampa 2

Despite getting out-hit 8-4, the Mountain Home Lady Tigers held off Nampa 3-2 in the opening round of district softball last Monday at Columbia High School in Nampa.

Sammy Dodge's solo home run in the bottom of the third inning gave the Lady Tigers the lead for good.

"It was tight all the way through!" Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Joy Memmelaar said in radio comments after the game.

"They (Nampa) came here to hit the ball, and we kind of hit intermittently, Sammy with her home run, and then we had a couple other nice hits, but we couldn't quite put them all together. The girls held on and stepped up their game and made sure we got the win."

Besides Sammy Dodge's home run, Kelsey Hopkins had two hits and Nickayla Skinner had the only other Mountain Home hit.

Tiffany Smith had an RBI. Skinner gave up eight hits and struck out eight while walking three.

Mtn. Home 6

Emmett 0

Nickayla Skinner struck out 14 Emmett batters and allowed just one hit as the Lady Tigers blanked Emmett, 6-0, in the semi-finals on Tuesday at Columbia.

Sammy Dodge led a 13-hit attack with three hits and two RBIs.

Kim Hamilton, Ashley Christiansen and Kelsey Hopkins each had two hits, Hamilton and Christiansen had RBIs. Nickayla Skinner had a double and an RBI, Ashley Kipp had a hit and RBI, and Krista Gillaspy and Tiffany Smith also had hits.

"It was a great win," said Coach Memmelaar of the Emmett win.

"The girls played tough defense and they hit well, and Nick pitched a wonderful game. It's nice to see them play well."

Mtn. Home 1

Bishop Kelly 0

The Emmett win put the Lady Tigers in the District Championship game against Bishop Kelly, and also qualified them for state.

Mountain Home's Nickayla Skinner and Bishop Kelly's Britney Croner were locked in a tight pitching duel, with Skinner winning the duel, 1-0.

Mountain Home scored their lone run in the sixth inning, as Breann Christiansen walked, went to second on Nickayla Skinner's single, and came home on Sammy Dodge's double to deep center field.

Nickayla Skinner ended up with a two-hitter, the second hit an infield hit by Sara Jaszkowski in the Bishop Kelly seventh with two out. She then struck out Bailee Lowry to end the inning and the game -- her 11th strikeout of the game.

"I'm really excited that we won," Skinner said in radio comments after the game. "I think we really deserved it and we always knew that we could beat BK and we finally did! We just came out ready to go from the beginning, and we did good!"

"What a great game! The girls were just fantastic," said Coach Memmelaar. "You couldn't ask for a better championship game. It was heart and soul for every single one of them out there. I don't even have words to describe how I feel right now!" she said, her voice cracking. "I'm so proud to say I'm a part of this team and to have coached with them. We are just so happy."

Sammy Dodge, who doubled in Breann Christiansen with what proved to be the winning run, was also excited.

"It feels so great! It's my senior year and I've been working so hard for this, it's just amazing! I think we'll do good (at state). I don't think we're just going to show up and go two-and-a-barbeque, I think we're going to make a dent."

The Lady Tigers improved to 18-8 on the season with the win, while Skinner improved to 16-4 on the season, lowering her earned run average to 1.79.

The Lady Tigers open play tomorrow at 5 p.m. Coeur d'Alene time (6 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time) against the District IV-V runner-up, Burley. The state tourney runs through Saturday.