Lady Tigers repeat as district champs

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers had to come from behind in two of the three games they played at district, but they prevailed to capture their second straight district softball title, and advance to the State 4A Softball Tournament, which starts Thursday in Twin Falls.

Lady Tigers 4

Nampa 3

Mountain Home went into Monday's district tourney opener as the number one seed against Nampa, the number eight seed in the eight-team tourney.

Mountain Home had swept Nampa during the regular season, outscoring the Lady Bulldogs, 26-1.

Nothing to worry about, right? Wrong! The Lady Tigers had to overcome a 3-0 deficit and scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to win 4-3.

Emily Renfro walked and Ashley Gorton was hit by a pitch to start the Nampa first. Nickayla Skinner then struck out the next two batters, and was ahead of the count to Kelly Lester when Lester smacked a two-run single to give Nampa a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Mountain Home left two runners on in both the first and second innings, and through five innings, the score remained 2-0, Nampa.

Whitney Warner walked to lead off the sixth inning for Nampa, and later came in to score, to put the Lady Bulldogs up 3-0.

Mountain Home finally got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth, as Ashley Christiansen doubled and came home on Charde Huntington's two-out double.

The Lady Tigers trailed, 3-1, going into their last at bat in the bottom of the seventh.

Lindsay Sessions reached on an error to start the inning off, and after Arlene Futch flied out to right field, Krista Gillaspy singled, sending Sessions to third.

With Kelsie Hopkins at the plate, a pitch got past the catcher, and Lindsay Sessions scored to make it 3-2, Gillaspy moving to second. Hopkins was then hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Nampa's Amanda Beebe then walked Nickayla Skinner to load the bases before Ashley Christiansen ripped her second double of the game, scoring Gillaspy and Hopkins. The Lady Tigers won, 4-3.

"In districts, you can't take anyone for granted," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Chris Asbury after the game.

"Obviously, we don't overlook anybody, but it sure looked like that through five innings. We've got to step up. A good team like Bishop Kelly tomorrow's not going to let us off the hook. They showed me a lot in the last two innings -- the first five I could have thrown away -- definitely the last two they stepped up and was a total team effort there."

Ashley Christiansen had two doubles and two RBIs the game-winners. Krista Gillaspy also had two hits, Charde Huntington had an RBI double, and Arlene Futch and Nickayla Skinner also had hits.

Skinner gave up three hits on the day, while striking out 15, walking three and hitting one.

Mtn. Home 8

Bishop Kelly 2

Bishop Kelly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, but Nickayla Skinner shut them out the rest of the way and the Lady Tiger bats came alive as Mountain Home beat the Lady Knights, 8-2 to advance to the district championship game and secure a berth at state.

"It was a very good win. We bounced back from a sub-par performance on Monday to show our true colors tonight, so we're moving on to the championship game on Thursday," said Coach Asbury after the game.

Kelsie Hopkins, Breann Christiansen, and Nickayla Skinner all had two hits including doubles, Hopkins had two RBIs, Breann and Skinner both had one. Ashley Christiansen had a hit and two RBIs, Arlene Futch had a hit and RBI, and Krista Gillaspy, Charde Huntington, Tawni Downen and Lindsey Sessions also had hits.

Skinner limited Bishop Kelly to just two hits while striking out 14.

Mtn. Home 2

Kuna 1

(8 innings)

The Bishop Kelly win put the Lady Tigers in the Championship game on Thursday against Kuna, which had advanced with a 2-1 eight-inning win over Emmett. This one also went eight, with Charde Huntington's single scoring Lindsey Sessions with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.

Kuna got two hits off Nickayla Skinner in the first inning, a double by Delphione Arizana scoring Ashli Hughes as Kuna took a 1-0 lead in the first.

Mountain Home tied the game in the fifth, as Tawni Downen's infield hit scored Blas Lord from third base.

Neither team scored through seven, setting up extra innings. With extra innings, comes the speed-up rule that has each team start the inning with a runner at second. Ashli Hughes sacrificed their runner to third base, but Nickayla Skinner got Casey Fitzgerald to pop up to Kelsie Hopkins and she struck out Delphine Arizana looking to end the Kuna eighth.

Lindsey Sessions started the Mountain Home eighth at second base.

Arlene Futch tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but popped it foul, and Kuna catcher Megan Lewis dove and caught it for the first out. Krista Gillaspy's bunt attempt was caught by a diving third baseman Amanda Dunson for the second out. That brought up sophomore Charde Huntington who singled in Lindsey Sessions with the winning run.

"An epic battle. That's the way softball should be played," said a happy Coach Asbury after the game. "I wouldn't say we didn't play our best game of the year, but we came out a little tense -- we're a young team with five sophomores -- it's kind of fitting the two runs scored by sophomores and the game-winning hit by a sophomore, so a very bright future for the program, and I think the girls learned a lot from the seniors down through the program.

"We are the best conference in the state, I have no doubt about that, we'll run into each other (Mountain Home and Kuna), very soon."

Nickayla Skinner struck out 14 batters and scattered five hits to improve to 19-2 overall. She had two hits at the plate. Tawni Downen and Charde Huntington had RBI singles, Ashley Christiansen had a double, and Arlene Futch also had a hit.

The Lady Tigers take a 21-2 overall record to state, which starts this Thursday and runs through Saturday in Twin Falls. Mountain Home opens against Wood River, a team they swept a doubleheader from early in the season.

"We've seen Wood River -- they gave us some fits -- that was early on," said Coach Asbury. "We definitely need to improve the bats -- we can't come out hesitant, and they've seen Nickayla -- they have the most hits off her in the whole entire year -- eight, but like I said, that was early. They're a different team, we're a different team -- we'll deal with whoever's in front of us."

Their first game is at 3 p.m. Thursday against Wood River in Twin Falls.