Lady Tigers continue to roll, sweep Minico, Vallivue

About the only thing able to stop the Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball team right now is the weather, as the Lady Tigers picked up a couple conference wins last week.

Since their opening season 1-0, 8-inning loss to Timberline, the only thing that has stopped them from winning has been the weather, as their games at Minico and Vallivue have been washed out by snow and rain respectively.

Mtn. Home 7

Columbia 0

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers won their fifth straight ball game last Tuesday when they shut out Columbia, 7-0, in conference softball at Mountain Home.

Kelsie Hopkins provided more than enough support for Nickayla Skinner, cracking a grand slam home run in the fifth inning when the Lady Tigers scored five runs to up the lead to 7-0. Skinner limited the Lady Wildcats to just four hits while striking out 10 batters.

"We're 3-0 in conference, so feeling pretty good now," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Chris Asbury, "but I wasn't really thrilled with the way we played today. We played like back in the first week of the season, but we'll get the kids' bats going. We've got two more games to improve this week, and hopefully, we'll make some progress."

Besides Kelsie Hopkins' home run and four RBIs, Ashley Christiansen and Nickayla Skinner both had two hits, including a double, and Christiansen knocked in a run. Krista Gillaspy, Breann Christiansen and Liz Griffeath also had hits, and Tawni Downen had an RBI.

Mtn. Home 7

Skyview 0

Ashley Christiansen had three hits and four RBIs and Nickalyla Skinner struck out 16 batters while giving up just one hit in a 7-0 conference win at Skyview Thursday.

Arlene Futch also had three hits and drove in a run, and Kelsie Hopkins and Charde Huntington both had two hits, Hopkins had an RBI-double. Nickayla Skinner had a triple, Breann Christiansen had a double, and Tawni Downen had an RBI.

"It was a good win, but I'm a pretty harsh critic," said Coach Asbury after the game. "We have a few errors to clean up. By no means do I think we can 10-run everybody, every game. We're playing well enough to win, but we've got a ways to go."

The win was the sixth straight for Mountain Home, which improved to 6-1 on the season and 4-0 in conference play. The game at Vallivue was postponed because of rain.

The Lady Tigers return to action on April 1 when they host Bishop Kelly.