Lady Tigers' title quest ends

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers opened the District III 4A softball tournament with a win over Bishop Kelly but then lost to Kuna and Emmett to exit the tourney.

Mountain Home 3, Bishop Kelly 1

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers won their third straight game last Monday as they opened the district tourney with a 3-1 win over Bishop Kelly.

The Lady Tigers scored one run in the first and added two more in the second. It proved to be more than enough as Heather Adams and the Mountain Home defense allowed just one Bishop Kelly run to cross the plate for the win.

Mountain Home softball coach Chris Asbury was proud of the way his Lady Tigers performed this month, winning their third straight game.

"It's the story of two different teams this season -- a real immature, error-making team, lack of focus team to start the year. We kind of stumbled in the middle. I knew we could get there. We just had to keep working hard every single day, and the girls have responded."

In a tight game like this a month ago, "they would have folded like lawn chairs, and today they stepped up," he added. "That's two tight games in a row that we came out on top."

Teresa Fredell and Courtney Christiansen both had RBI-singles, Madi Karst had a double and Madison Siefferman, Krissy Elliott and Brittney Karst also had hits. Heather Adams went the distance, striking out six to improve to 9-9 on the season.

Kuna 4, Mountain Home 0

The Bishop Kelly win -- Mountain Home's first over the Lady Knights this season -- put the Lady Tigers at Kuna against the Lady Kavemen in the semi-finals last Tuesday. Mountain Home hoped to pick up its first win over Kuna this season but it was not to be as the Lady Tigers were blanked, 0-4.

Mountain Home managed just one hit off Kuna's Nicole Arizana -- a single by Madison Siefferman. Heather Adams suffered the loss, despite giving up just two earned runs and three hits.

"It's unfortunate, because Heather pitched a great game," Asbury said regarding the Kuna loss. "We held them to just three hits, but unfortunately we were unable to push any runs across the board. When we only produce one hit, that makes things a little more difficult."

Emmett 3, Mountain Home 2

The Kuna loss put the Lady Tigers in the consolation bracket where they faced Emmett last Wednesday as the district tourney moved to Emmett for the rest of the district tournament.

Mountain Home took an early 2-0 lead, but Emmett tied it in the third inning and went up by one in the fourth. It was enough for a Lady Huskies' win.

Madi Karst and Heather Adams combined on a three-hitter, and none of the three Emmett runs were earned. But for the second straight game, Mountain Home managed just one hit, this time a single by Brittney Karst.

"It's kind of been the story of our season -- up and down and hot and cold bats," Asbury said. "Unfortunately for us, come district time, you need to have all aspects of your game in line, and we went cold at the plate at the wrong time."