Lady Tigers head into District with wins

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers bounced back from their loss to Bishop Kelly early in the week with wins over Middleton and Emmett to close out their regular season softball schedule.

Bishop Kelly 13,

Mountain Home 1

(Five innings)

They say softball is sometimes a game of inches. This was the case April 30 when the Lady Tigers took on the Lady Knights at Bishop Kelly.

The Lady Knights out hit Mountain Home 14-5 on their way to a 13-1 five-inning win.

It wasn't that the Lady Tigers didn't hit the ball hard. It's just a lot of Mountain Home's hits found their way into the gloves of the Bishop Kelly players while hits from the Lady Knights remained just out of reach of the Mountain Home defenders.

Bishop Kelly took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and scored six more in the third to go up 9-1. They iced the game with four more in the fourth to roll to the five-inning win.

"It comes down at this point of the season, to those who execute and get the job done and those who don't," said Lady Tigers softball coach Chris Asbury. "We hit a lot of balls right at people with runners on and nobody out and not doing our job in the batter's box. Defensively, we had some routine plays that don't go our way and we make errors.

Routine outs and routine hits separate teams by this time of year, the coach added.

"Unfortunately for us, we're struggling with both of those," he said.

Brittney Karst had two hits for Mountain Home while Teresa Fredell, Morgan Vivier and Taylor Reed also had hits. Heather Adams suffered the loss to drop to 7-9 on the season.

Mountain Home 10, Middleton 0

(Five innings)

The four Mountain Home seniors went out in style last Tuesday, celebrating Senior Night with seven hits, scoring seven runs and driving in four during a 10-0 five-inning win over Middleton at Memmelaar Field.

Mountain Home scored one run in the second inning before the team added six in the third and ended the game with three in the fifth.

"It was an excellent way to send the seniors off, and it was a complete team effort," Coach Asbury said after the game. "What better way to end the night than to have a senior get a walk-off hit to score another senior to secure the 10-run win."

Krissy Elliott, Brittney Karst, Courtney Christiansen and Madi Karst all had two hits. Madi Karst drove in four runs, Brittney Karst knocked in three while Krissy Elliott added one. Madison Siefferman had a triple and Maeghan Pomerantz had a hit and two RBIs.

Heather Adams pitched a two-hit shutout to improve to 8-9 on the season.

Mountain Home 10, Emmett 9

Mountain Home came from behind to down the Emmett Lady Huskies, 10-9, last Wednesday at Emmett to close out the regular season.

Emmett jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one, but the Lady Tigers erupted for six runs in the top of the sixth to go up, 8-4.

The Lady Huskies scored four in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at eight. Mountain Home scored two more in the top of the seventh, and held the Lady Huskies to just one in the bottom half of the inning to escape with the one-run victory.

"They really battled," Coach Asbury said regarding the win. "We gave up the lead but showed a lot of grit there in the last inning to get the lead back and hold on. It was a maturing moment for a lot of these youngsters to come out of there with a win."

Madi Karst led the Lady Tigers at the plate with a three-run triple. Krissy Elliott, Brittney Karst, Teresa Fredell and Maeghan Pomerantz all had hits and RBIs while Courtney Christiansen added a hit.

Madi Karst pitched the seventh inning and earned the win, her first against four losses.

The Lady Tigers finished 6-10 in conference, earning the number six seed going into the District III 4A Softball Tourney that opened Monday at Bishop Kelly against the third-seeded Lady Knights.

The Lady Tigers head into District on a two-game winning streak, and Coach Asbury likes their chances going into District.

"We're playing well," he said. "Like I said all season, if we keep plugging away at it and get better every day, and as long as we're playing good ball in May, then I like our chances."

The District Tourney is at the higher seeds the first two days, moving to Emmett today, May 9, and Thursday, May 10, for the final two days. The top two teams advance to state, with the third place team going to a play-in game on Saturday.