Lady Tigers open SIC play with lopsided victories

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers opened their conference softball schedule with two lopsided wins last week over Nampa and Kuna.

Mtn. Home 19

Nampa 1

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers continued their hot hitting Tuesday at Nampa, downing the Lady Bulldogs, 19-1, in their conference softball opener.

After going out, one, two, three in the first inning, the Lady Tigers found themselves trailing, 1-0, after one, when Nampa scored an unearned run in the bottom of the inning.

Mountain Home sent 12 batters to the plate in the second inning and scored eight runs. They added five more in the third, four in the fourth, and two in the fifth as they pounded out 21 hits.

"Everybody one through nine in the order, and our subs coming off the bench were all making good contact, and we ran the bases really well tonight," said Mountain Home softball coach Chris Asbury after the game. "They did a good job and we came away with a win."

Arlene Futch had four hits, scored three runs and knocked in two runs with a double. Krista Gillaspy, Charde Huntington and Nickayla Skinner each had three hits, Gillaspy knocked in five runs, Huntington, three with a bases-loaded triple, and Skinner had two RBIs. Kelsie Hopkins and Ashley Christiansen both had two hits, Hopkins plated two runs, Christiansen, one. Breann Christiansen tripled in a run, and Megan Kelly, Liz Griffeath and Tiffany Smith also had hits, Smith had an RBI.

Nickayla Skinner scattered three hits while striking out seven Nampa batters and improved to 2-1 on the season.

Mtn. Home 13

Kuna 1

The Lady Tigers made it four straight wins and improved to 2-0 in SIC 4A conference play Thursday with a 13-1 win over Kuna in six innings.

The Lady Tigers took an early 4-0 lead in the top of the first, three of the runs coming off a three-run home run by Nickayla Skinner. Mountain Home added two runs in the third and two more in the fourth, and broke it open with five in the sixth.

Coach Asbury was pleased to see his Lady Tigers come out strong at the plate in the first inning.

"That was our focus to come out and have a big first inning, and we got it."

Nickayla Skinner, who also had a double and drove in four runs on the day, improved to 3-1 on the season, giving up just one Kuna hit while striking out seven. The lone Kuna run came in the fifth and was unearned.

Ashley Christiansen had three hits and drove in a run for Mountain Home. Nickayla Skinner had a home run, a double and drove in four runs. Kelsie Hopkins had three hits including a double and triple and had three RBIs, Arlene Futch had two hits, Charde Huntington and Breann Christiansen both had a hit and RBI, Krista Gillaspy and Tiffany Smith also had hits.

The win improved the Lady Tigers to 4-1 overall, and put them at 2-0 in conference play.

"I think we're at the top of our conference right now, and if we can give Skinner some run support early, she can close the door and I think we'll be pretty solid down the stretch," said Coach Asbury.

The Lady Tigers had a doubleheader at Minico that was postponed due to bad weather last Saturday.

The Lady Tigers hosted Columbia in conference play yesterday (Tuesday), travel to Vallivue this afternoon for a non-conference game, and travel to Skyview tomorrow for a conference game. Each game starts at 5 p.m.