After win, Lady Tigers drop three straight games

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers softball team started off the week with a win, but then dropped three straight in a busy week of softball action.

Mountain Home 14, Columbia 4

(5 innings)

The Lady Tigers took advantage of 17 walks by Columbia pitchers to down the Lady Wildcats 14-4 in five innings in conference softball last Tuesday at Memmelaar Field in Mountain Home.

Mountain Home broke the game open with six runs in the second inning to go up 7-1. The team upped its lead to 9-2 in the third, 11-4 in the fourth, and ended the game with three more runs in the fifth to win 14-4 in five.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Ron Nicolosi was pleased with the win.

"This was a good win for us. We prepared for their number one pitcher (Dardis), then found out she was injured before game time. It was an adjustment we had to make at the plate, and some made it better than others. Their pitchers had a tough night finding the plate, and as a hitter, it makes it tough to get into a rhythm and mentally stay focused.

"I'm proud of the way the girls put the game away. We have to take advantage of what other teams give us and I thought we did that fairly well tonight. We ran the bases real well and showed some aggressiveness.

"When you look at the RBI column, you can see that eight different players had an RBI, and that's impressive," the coach said.

"Defensively, I thought we gave a solid performance. I'm really encouraged by all the movement I see the girls doing.

"McKenna (Lewis) did a good job (pitching) today. She had trouble hitting her spots, but battled well. She only made one big mistake and Dardis made her pay. It's still early, and I see her improving each time out."

Maeghan Pomerantz and Madi Karst both had two hits and a double for Mountain Home. Pomerantz drove in four runs. Karst had one RBI and scored three times.

Morgan Vivier, Ashton Harrigan, McKenna Lewis and Teresa Fredell also had hits and RBIs. Fredell knocked in two runs. Vivier had a double and scored three runs. Taylor Reed and Heather Adams also had RBIs. Reed scored twice.

McKenna Lewis went the distance for the win, pitching five innings, striking out eight.

Nampa 4, Mountain Home 3

Nampa plated two runs in the top of the sixth to take the lead and held on for a 4-3 win over the Lady Tigers last Thursday at Memmelaar Field in Mountain Home.

Both teams scored a run in the third inning. The Lady Bulldogs scored one in the top of the fifth, and Mountain Home pushed across two runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead 3-2.

Nampa took the lead with two more in the sixth.

Mountain Home outhit the Lady Bulldogs, 8-6, but errors proved to be the difference in the game.

"This was a very disappointing loss," said Coach Nicolosi after the game.

"I'm truly at a loss for words. We just played poorly and in essence gave this game to Nampa. Heather (Adams) came through with a big hit to put us ahead late in the game, but we did not take advantage of the momentum it created to inspire us defensively. This one hurt. Hopefully, this will motivate us and move us forward."

Morgan Vivier had three hits, two of them doubles, for the Lady Tigers and scored two runs. Heather Adams had two hits, including a double, and knocked in three runs. Kendra Castillo also had two hits and Maeghan Pomerantz had Mountain Home's other hit.

Heather Adams pitched six innings for Mountain Home, striking out seven. She suffered the loss. Just three of the four Nampa runs were earned. Mckenna Lewis pitched a scoreless seventh, striking out one.

Kimberly 9, Mountain Home 7

Kimberly scored two runs in the sixth inning to pull away for a 9-7 non-conference win over the Lady Tigers at Kimberly on Friday.

Mountain Home scored two runs in the top of the first, but Kimberly answered with three in the bottom half of the inning and added three more in the second to go up 6-3 on the Lady Tigers.

Mountain Home managed to tie the game at 7-7 in the fourth, and it stayed tied until Kimberly scored twice to regain the lead in the bottom of the sixth and go on to win, 9-7.

"I was very happy with the way the girls shook off the loss yesterday (to Nampa) and came out today," said Coach Nicolosi after the game.

"Kimberly was very scrappy and made us work hard playing small ball. I believe they only had two balls hit out of the infield in their first 11 batters, yet they scored four runs. It definitely caught our defense by surprise.

"Our approach at the plate is still a work in progress. Their pitcher was definitely hittable and most of the girls didn't do a very good job when it came to pitch selection. We had our opportunities, but got too anxious and hit weak ground balls or lazy fly balls.

"I believe if you would ask the girls, they would all agree that we should not have been outhit by Kimberly.

"I was very pleased with how our girls battled back after being down three runs. The only big mistake was the one pitch for the home run by McKenna. I thought she showed good poise and maturity when things didn't go well."

Heather Adams had two doubles and knocked in three runs. Maeghan Pomerantz had two hits and scored three runs. McKenna Lewis had a double and Taylor Reed, Kendra Castillo, Ashton Harrigan and Teresa Fredell also had hits.

McKenna Lewis went the distance in the circle and suffered the loss, although just six of the nine Kimberly runs were earned.

Filer 5, Mountain Home 2

Filer jumped out to an early 3-0 lead and held on for a 5-2 win over the Lady Tigers Saturday at Memmelaar Field in Mountain Home.

"We made a few mistakes defensively, which gave Filer opportunities and they took advantage of those mistakes," said Coach Nicolosi.

"Our pitchers have had a couple of rough outings. We're missing a lot of spots and hitters are doing a better job of hitting us when we do that than we do when opposing pitchers do that to us.

"This was definitely a game we should have won, but we didn't take advantage of our opportunities," the coach said.

"We struggled at the plate every time we had runners in scoring position. Right now, that's the most discouraging aspect of our game. We are getting runners in scoring position every game, but can't get that important hit. We face some of the best pitching in the state and need to improve in this area."

The Lady Tigers managed just five hits in the game. Taylor Reed had two of them. Maeghan "Pomerantz and McKenna Lewis had hits and RBIs. Heather Adams had the only other hit.

Heather Adams pitched five innings for Mountain Home and gave up all five runs. McKenna Lewis closed out the game with two scoreless innings of relief, striking out four batters.

The Lady Tigers take a 2-6 overall record into spring break, returning to action April 1 at Caldwell.

The Mountain Home News continues its look at the Mountain Home Lady Tigers softball team.

Madi Karst

Madi Karst is a senior, in her fourth year of playing varsity softball.

The daughter of Jennifer and Peter Karst plays third base and first base for the Lady Tigers.

Madi's hobbies include sports, hanging with friends and having fun.

Madi's main goal for the season is, "making it to state.'

Her goals after high school include, "go to college and become very successful."