Lady Tigers bring home silver from state

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers capped off a successful softball season, bringing home the Runners-up trophy from the State 4A Softball Tournament in Coeur d'Alene over the weekend.

The Lady Tigers won three games at state, losing twice to Bishop Kelly, which claimed its third straight softball title.

Mtn. Home 7

Burley 0

The Lady Tigers opened Thursday afternoon against Burley and pounded out 11 hits, while Nickayla Skinner held Burley to just one.

"The girls came out ready to play," said Mountain Home softball coach Joy Memmelaar. "We played good defense, got good pitching and hit the ball well. It was a good way to start the tournament."

Sheena Nelsen swung a big bat against Burley, getting two hits and knocking in two runs. Kim Hamilton had three hits and an RBI, and Ashley Kipp had two hits and an RBI. Sammy Dodge, Ashley Christiansen, Kelsie Hopkins and Nickayla Skinner also had hits.

Skinner struck out seven and did not walk anyone, pitching the one-hit shutout.

Mtn. Home 10

Emmett 0

The Burley win put the Lady Tigers against conference foe Emmett, who had edged Blackfoot in the first round. Mountain Home came out hitting the long ball, getting three home runs in a 10-0 five-inning win.

Ashley Christiansen got the scoring started with a solo home run in the second inning, and Nickayla Skinner and Sammy Dodge both hit two-run shots in the third inning.

"The girls really came through," said Coach Memmelaar. "We told them being the visitors we really needed to be hitting the ball and score some runs, and score they did. We also played good defense."

Kim Hamilton and Krista Gillaspy both had two hits, Hamilton an RBI. Nickayla Skinner and Sammy Dodge had two-run home runs, Ashley Christiansen had her solo home run, Kelsie Hopkins had a double and RBI, and Sheena Nelsen had a hit and RBI.

Nickayla Skinner gave up just two hits while striking out three, and improved to 18-4 on the season.

Bishop Kelly 8

Mtn. Home 2

The Emmett win put the Lady Tigers up against Bishop Kelly in the semi-finals Friday evening.

The Lady Knights jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and Bishop Kelly's Britney Croner limited the Lady Tigers to just four hits while striking out 16.

"We didn't play well defensively," said coach Memmelaar after the game. "We committed five errors and we just weren't able to make the adjustment from one pitcher (Emmett) to the next (B.K.'s Croner), and she got the better of us, basically. Hopefully we can make better adjustments tomorrow and take care of business."

Krista Gillaspy had Mountain Home's lone RBI, and Kelsie Hopkins, Sammy Dodge, Ashley Kipp and Nickayla Skinner got the only hits.

Skinner gave up just four earned runs and eight hits and struck out 11 Lady Knight batters.

Mtn. Home 10

Moscow 0

Overnight rains pushed back Saturday's games nearly two hours, but it did not bother the Lady Tigers, who got three-run home runs from Sammy Dodge and Breann Christiansen to jump out to a 7-0 first-inning lead.

The Lady Tigers scored three more in the third inning, and won, 10-0, in five.

Krista Gillaspy, Nickayla Skinner and Breann Christiansen each had three hits, Christiansen had three RBIs off the home run, Gillaspy had one RBI. Kim Hamilton, Sammy Dodge and Liz Griffeath had two hits, Dodge had three RBIs off her home run, Hamilton had two RBIs, and Griffeath knocked in a run. Ashley Christiansen also had a hit.

Nickayla Skinner won for the 19th time, limiting Moscow to just two hits while striking out eight.

"We had the girls move up a little bit," said Coach Memmelaar.

"She (the Moscow pitcher) was a lot slower -- most of the pitchers up there were a lot slower, so we had to move up and really focus on the ball and hold back and kind of fire, and the girls fired, let me tell you! Their bats came alive and they didn't stop."

Bishop Kelly 5

Mtn. Home 3

The Moscow win put the Lady Tigers in the championship round against Bishop Kelly, needing to beat them twice to win the championship.

The Lady Tigers battled tough, and tied the game at 3-3 in the sixth, but Bishop Kelly scored twice in the seventh to win 5-3.

Sammy Dodge's home run in the fourth inning broke open a scoreless battle between Mountain Home's Nickayla Skinner and Britney Croner, giving the Lady Tigers a 1-0 lead, but Bishop Kelly scored three times in the fifth inning to go up, 3-1.

A two-run home run by Nickayla Skinner in the sixth, tied the game at 3-3, but the Lady Knights struck for two runs in the top of the seventh to take a 5-3 lead, and Britney Croner struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh to give Bishop Kelly the win, their third state softball title in three years.

"It was really hard for the girls to go from the slow, slow (Moscow) pitching and have no time to readjust very much to try and hit off Croner, who's got some speed and movement on her ball," said Coach Memmelaar.

"We adjusted, obviously, with Sammy and Nick coming through with home runs to tie the score, but we had a couple of errors, and with B.K., that's all it takes."

Mountain Home managed just three hits off Britney Croner. Sammy Dodge and Nickayla Skinner had two of them -- Skinner's a two-run shot, and Kim Hamilton had the other hit.

Skinner scattered five hits and had eight strikeouts, and gave up four walks, two of them intentional.

Just two of the five runs scored by Bishop Kelly were earned.

"We had a great tournament! The gals did very well," said Coach Memmelaar. "I think we actually got some records in the sState record book. We got three home runs in one game and seven as a team for the whole tournament, and we tied the record for shutouts in the tournament with three, so they represented Mountain Home fantastically up there at the tournament, and it's just a great season overall for the girls.

"They got what they deserved in the sense that they played really hard and they worked really hard and they made it all the way to the Big Show!

"It looks good for the future, too," continued Memmelaar. "We're a very young team. We lose some key players -- our catcher, third base, center field and right field, but the rest of them are there, and now they've got the experience, they know what it takes, so that speaks really well for them. It gives them a little something to go for next year, so it'll be good -- it'll be very good."

The Lady Tigers finished the season with an overall 21-10 record.