Lady Tigers sweep pre-season conference title

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers battled the weather as well as SIC conference foes in winning the Pre-Season SIC Softball Tournament at Skyview over the weekend, downing Columbia, Emmett and Kuna to claim the title.

Mountain Home 11, Columbia 1

The Lady Tigers opened the tourney Friday afternoon against Columbia and scored in every inning on their way to an 11-1 win in five innings.

Nickayla Skinner scattered three hits and allowed one unearned run while striking out eight batters. She helped her cause with two hits including an RBI-triple.

Arlene Futch and Jennica Quintal both had three hits including doubles and two RBIs. Madison Siefferman, Charde Huntington, Megan Kelly, Blas Lord and Courtney Christiansen each had a hit. Siefferman had a double and RBI. Huntington and Kelly also had RBIs and Lord had a double.

"I was very pleased with the win," said Lady Tiger softball coach Chris Asbury after the game. "Obviously, we have some errors and situational things we need to clean up, but for the first real, live contact game of the year, I'll take that performance."

Mountain Home 7, Emmett 3

While a good share of the valley was getting blizzard-like conditions, Nampa just had the howling wind. The Lady Tigers broke open a close game with three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to down Emmett 7-3.

Jennica Quintal had another three-hit game for Mountain Home and drove in a run. After the wind kept Nickayla Skinner's first two fly balls from going out, she ripped a third one over the fence for a three-run shot in the fifth.

Arlene Futch and Blas Lord also had hits. Lord had an RBI and Charde Huntington also had an RBI.

Blas Lord picked up the win, pitching into the seventh inning when errors and hits led to two Emmett runs. Nickayla Skinner came in to close out the threat.

Lord allowed just two hits while striking out five and walking six. Skinner faced two batters, retiring them both, one on a strikeout.

"I was very pleased with the pitching effort by Blas, and we played pretty good defense behind her. In the past, we haven't played much defense behind her, but she pitched well and the girls made the plays," Asbury said.

Mountain Home 6, Kuna 5 (10 innings)

The Emmett win put the Lady Tigers against Kuna for the tourney championship.

Kuna had opened with a 10-0 win over Bishop Kelly and had outscored Middleton 8-6 in the other semi-final. The two teams have had some great battles and Saturday was no different, the game going 10 innings before the Lady Tigers finally won it 6-5.

The game was a great pitching duel between Mountain Home's Nickayla Skinner and Kuna's Ashleigh Arizana.

After three scoreless innings, Skinner got another ball through the wind and out of the park in the fourth to put Mountain Home up 1-0.

Kuna took advantage of a walk, a stolen base and a couple passed balls to tie it in the sixth. Neither team could score in the seventh and the game went into extra innings.

Kuna took advantage of three Mountain Home throwing errors to plate three runs in the top of the eighth to go up 4-1.

Jennica Quintal singled in one run and Blas Lord doubled in two more in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game at 4-4.

Kuna loaded the bases with one out in the top of the ninth, but Skinner got a foul ball to the catcher Megan Kelly, and a strikeout to end the threat.

The game went to the 10th inning, where another error led to a Kuna run, as they went up 5-4.

In the bottom of the 10th, Arlene Futch had an infield hit and Jennica Quintal walked to load the bases for Nickayla Skinner, who got hold of one that the wind held up, but it made it over the fence for a two-run double that iced the win for the Lady Tigers, 6-5.

"I felt we gave them the game a couple of times, but we were fortunate to battle back each time," Asbury said. "Nick pitched a great game, and we kind of rode her bat through the game, but it was a good experience for them. This early in the year, they could have hung their heads there in the eighth and packed it up and went home, but they battled back and got some clutch hits when we needed to.

"It does show us some areas we need to work on," Asbury added, however.

Nickayla Skinner gave up just five hits in the 10 innings and all five runs were unearned. She struck out 16 batters. She also had a great game at the plate, going five-for-five, with three doubles, a home run and three RBIs.

Arlene Futch, Jennica Quintal, Blas Lord, Charde Huntington and Lindsay Sessions also had hits. Lord had a double and two RBIs and Quintal also had an RBI.

The Lady Tigers open conference play at home this week. They hosted Emmett Tuesday and host Middleton Thursday. They then go to Minico on Saturday for a non-conference doubleheader against the Lady Spartans.