Lady Tigers post back-to-back conference victories

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Mountain Home's Lady Tigers came up with 7-6 conference softball wins over Skyview and Bishop Kelly last week.

Mountain Home 7, Skyview 6

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers returned to the win column Tuesday, holding off Skyview for a 7-6 conference softball win at Memmelaar Field in Mountain Home.

Mountain Home jumped out to a 2-0 lead after two innings and increased it to 3-1 after three. Sloppy fielding helped Skyview tie it at 3-3 in the top of the sixth.

The Lady Tigers struck for four runs in the bottom of the sixth -- three of them coming on a bases-loaded triple by Madison Siefferman.

Skyview rallied for three more runs in the top of the seventh, but Mountain Home pitcher Heather Adams got a fly-out and ground-out to get out of the inning, the Lady Tigers winning 7-6.

Although disappointed in some of the sloppy play that made the game close, Mountain Home girls softball coach Chris Asbury was happy to get the win.

"I thought it would take our best effort to come out of here with a 'w' tonight," the coach said. "Through six innings we were there and we kind of crumbled under a little bit of pressure. We bounced back again and then in the seventh kind of crumbled under the pressure. But the main thing is the experience -- the more times you can be in these situations, the better off you are. I would have preferred to come out of there with a 7-3 win versus 7-6, but we learn from these high-pressure situations and it makes us better. We look forward to our challenge the rest of the week."

Caitlyn Sheehy and Courtney Christiansen led Mountain Home's nine-hit attack with two hits apiece.Christiansen had a double. Madison Siefferman had a three-run triple, Madi Karst an RBI-triple, Rachel Warila had an RBI-double, Brittney Karst also had a double and Morgan Vivier also had a hit.

Heather Adams improved to 9-2 on the season, striking out four and walking one, with just two of the six runs she gave up being earned.

Mountain Home 7, Bishop Kelly 6

The Lady Tigers battled back from a 6-4 deficit in the seventh inning, scoring three runs to down Bishop Kelly 7-6 last Thursday at Bishop Kelly.

Both teams scored an unearned run in the first inning and, after Mountain Home plated a run in the top of the third to go up 2-1, the Lady Knights pushed across two runs in the bottom half of the inning to go up 3-2. Another run in the fourth made it 4-2, Bishop Kelly.

Mountain Home scored single runs in the fifth and sixth to tie the game at 4-4, but the Lady Knights struck for two in the bottom of the sixth to go up 6-4.

The first three batters for Mountain Home in the top of the seventh all reached base safely and all came home to put the Lady Tigers up 7-6 heading to the bottom of the seventh.

Bishop Kelly got the tying and winning runs on base with two out, but Lady Tiger pitcher Heather Adams got the next batter to ground out right back to her, and she flipped it to Madi Karst at first for the final out to secure the comeback 7-6 victory.

"Give them a lot of credit for hanging in there and coming back, but all the way around, offensively, defensively, pitching, this was probably our worst performance of the season," said Coach Asbury.

"We feel pretty fortunate to come out of here with a 'w', but I'm real disappointed with our performance tonight -- definitely not up to our standards."

Courtney Christiansen, Caitlyn Sheehy and Krissy Elliott each had two hits for Mountain Home. Christiansen knocked in two runs, Sheehy one and Elliott scored twice. Madison Siefferman, Brittney Karst, Heather Adams and Morgan Vivier also had hits. Vivier's was a triple and Madi Karst and Rachel Warila both had RBI.

Adams went the distance for the win, giving up just two earned runs to improve to 10-2 on the season.

The win improved Mountain Home to 6-1 in conference and 10-5 on the season.

The Lady Tigers are home for three conference games this week. They hosted Emmett on Tuesday, host Middleton on Thursday and take on Kuna on Friday at home.

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