Softball: Tigers finish second in state

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers capped off a successful softball season with the second-place trophy at the State 4A Softball Tournament in Twin Falls over the weekend.

Mtn. Home 2

Wood River 0

The opening game against Wood River set the tone for most of the State Tournament for the Lady Tigers -- close pitching duels. The Lady Tigers won three out of five of the close games, including the opener over Wood River, 2-0.

It was a great pitching duel between Mountain Home's Nickayla Skinner and Wood River's Samantha Engel. Both pitchers gave up just one hit, but Engel's was a two-run home run by Nickalyla Skinner in the fourth inning, which was all the scoring in the game.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Chris Asbury would have liked to have had more hits and runs in the game, but was happy to get the tournament off with a win, but noted afterward that "We've got to do a little bit more to help Nick out."

Nickayla Skinner gave up a lead-off single in the fifth inning for the only hit, but pitched out of a jam in the fourth when back-to-back errors gave Wood River runners at second and third with no outs. A ground ball to Kelsie Hopkins resulted in the first out, keeping the runners in check, and Skinner then struck out the next two batters to get out of the inning. Skinner had eight strikeouts in the game.

Mtn. Home 1

Lakeland 0

(8 innings)

The Wood River win put the Lady Tigers against Lakeland, which had opened with a 4-2 win over Burley. This one went extra innings before Mountain Home scored a run in the eighth to win 1-0.

Once again it was another pitching duel, this time between Nickayla Skinner and Lakeland's Jamie Klopatek, and hits were a premium, with each team getting just two. Skinner gave up two hits in the first inning, but none after that as she struck out 16 and hit two batters.

In the Mountain Home eighth, which started with Liz Griffeath at second base (part of the special extra-inning rules), Lindsey Sessions laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Griffeath to third. Arlene Futch grounded out to the second baseman, who threw home to try and prevent Griffeath from scoring, but the throw was late, and Griffeath scored.

In the Lakeland eighth, the first batter grounded to second, moving the runner at second to third. Skinner struck out the next batter, and got the next batter to bounce back to her, and she threw over to Kelsie Hopkins for the final out to get the win.

"Another battle! Cardiac kids! But we're getting it done in these situations, so it's making us strong!" said Coach Asbury after the win.

Kuna 1

Mtn. Home 0

The Lakeland win put the Lady Tigers against Kuna in the semi-finals. Kuna had opened with a 10-7 win over Blackfoot, and edged Pocatello 3-2.

Runs again were hard to come by and Kuna managed to score one to win 1-0.

It was another pitchers' duel, as Nickayla Skinner battled Kuna' Briana Dixon. Mountain Home actually outhit the Lady Kavemen, 6-3, but was unable to get any runs across the plate.

The Lady Tigers blew a golden opportunity in the fifth inning when Lindsey Sessions led off the inning with a single, Arlene Futch followed with a walk, and Blas Lord singled to load the bases with no one out.

Briana Dixon then got a strikeout, an infield popup and a groundout to get out of the inning.

Kuna scored their run in the sixth inning, as Casey Fitzgerald led off with a walk. Delphine Arizana laid a sacrifice bunt down the third base line, Charde Huntington threw her out at first, with Fitzgerald going all the way to third on the play. Amanda Dunson then bunted the ball back to Nickayla Skinner, who looked Fitzgerald back to third and threw over to first for the out, but Fitzgerald beat the throw from first to home to give Kuna a 1-0 lead -- the first run scored off Mountain Home in the tournament at the time.

Nickayla Skinner singled with two out in the Mountain Home seventh, but the next batter flew out to end the inning and the game, Kuna winning 1-0.

Arlene Futch had two hits in the game, with Blas Lord, Nickayla Skinner, Charde Huntington and Lindsey Sessions also getting hits.

Nickayla Skinner struck out seven and walked two and gave up just three hits.

Mtn. Home 3

Pocatello 2

(10 innings)

It was another great pitching duel Saturday morning, as the Lady Tigers faced Pocatello. This one went 10 innings before the Lady Tigers got a walk-off single by Ashley Christiansen in the bottom of the 10th to win it 3-2.

Nickayla Skinner and Pocatello's Jordan Denny were hooked up in a pitching duel Saturday morning. Mountain Home took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth as Breann Christiansen reached safely and moved around to third, coming home on Arlene Futch's sacrifice fly.

It looked like Mountain Home would win it in regulation, as Nickayla Skinner struck out the first two batters in the Pocatello seventh, and had two strikes on Jordan Denny, but Denny put the ball over the left field fence to tie the game at 1-1 and force Mountain Home to bat in the bottom of the seventh.

Krista Gillaspy led off the Mountain Home seventh with a double, but two fly-outs and a strikeout ended the inning and the game went to extra innings.

Three Mountain Home errors in the eighth inning scored one run for Pocatello and loaded the bases with just one out, but a tapper back to the pitcher led to a double play to get the Lady Tigers out of the inning, trailing 2-1.

In the Mountain Home eighth, Kelsey Hopkins sacrificed Charde Huntington to third base to lead off the inning. A ball to the backstop scored Huntington from third and tied the game at 2-2.

Both teams went scoreless in the ninth, and Nickayla Skinner set Pocatello down scoreless again in the 10th.

In the Mountain Home 10th, Nickayla Skinner walked to put runners on first and second, and Ashley Christiansen followed with a single to left to score Krista Gillaspy with the winning run, as Mountain Home won 3-2.

"We battled and we fought. I think we weren't nervous this morning and we came out and let Nick go to work and finally got some timely hitting," said Coach Asbury after the game.

Nickayla Skinner struck out 16, limiting Pocatello to just three hits in going the full 10 innings.

Mtn. Home 12

Kuna 1

The Pocatello win put the Lady Tigers against Kuna Saturday, needing to beat the Lady Kavemen twice to win the championship in the double-elimination format of the tournament. The hits came in groups against Kuna this time, as the Lady Tigers pounded their District III foe 12-1 to force another championship game.

The Lady Tigers got two runs off Briana Dixon in the first inning and she was lifted from the game for Ashleigh Arizana, who pitched four scoreless innings before Mountain Home got to her for four runs in the sixth. The Lady Tigers blew it open with six runs off Brianna Torre in the seventh to win 12-1.

Coach Asbury was pleased to see the bats come alive against Kuna.

"Couldn't pick a better time. A do-or-die situation. The girls have fought through adversity all year and showed it again tonight!"

Arlene Futch had three hits for Mountain Home, Charde Huntington and Breann Christiansen both had two hits, Huntington had a two-run triple and a three-run home run for five RBIs, and Breann Christiansen also had an RBI. Ashley Chrisitansen had an RBI single, Nickayla Skinner had a double and Lindsey Sessions also had a hit. Blas Lord scored three runs.

Skinner struck out seven, walked three, hit one and gave up three hits in the win.

Kuna 2

Mtn. Home 0

The Lady Tigers had to turn around and play Kuna again for the championship, their third game of the day in the scorching heat, and this time Kuna prevailed 2-0 to win the state championship.

Nickayla Skinner and Briana Dixon were locked up in another pitching duel in the final, and Casey Fitzgerald singled in two runs in the third inning to give the Lady Kavemen a 2-0 lead.

Mountain Home loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the third, but Briana Dixon ended the threat with a strikeout. Dixon struck out the side in the sixth and seventh innings as Kuna won 2-0.

Nickayla Skinner and Blas Lord had the only two hits off Dixon, who struck out 12 to beat Mountain Home for the third time this season.

"They fought through," said Coach Asbury. "After our first loss last night, we didn't give up and battled all morning and the weather obviously had something to do with it -- 90-plus degrees, three straight games -- I hated doing that to Nickayla, but she said, 'Coach give me the ball, I'm ready! I can throw the third game!' So we went with her and she threw a heck of a third game.

"I'm proud of everything they accomplished. They have no reason to hang their heads. That's a good Kuna team. We've beat them before, so we should be very proud of what we've done!"

The Lady Tigers finished the season 25-4 overall, and lose just three seniors from the team to graduation. Coach Asbury expects his Lady Tigers to be back at state next year and hopefully win it all.

Nickayla Skinner set a new State 4A Tourney record for strikeouts, getting 63 in the tournament. She ended the season 23-4 overall, had 349 strikeouts for the season and an overall earned run average of 0.46.