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MHHS softball team earns second state title
For the second year in a row, the Mountain Home Lady Tigers are State 4A Softball Champions.
After falling to Kuna in the semi-finals on Friday evening, Mountain Home won three games on Saturday -- beating Kuna twice -- to win the state title.
Last year, the Lady Tigers brought home the first team state championship in Mountain Home High School's history. This year they doubled the number of state champion banners that will hang in the school's gymnasium.
"It took more than a hundred years to get our first championship," MHHS Principal Jeff Johnson said, "and now we have two in less than a year."
Mtn. Home 5, Pocatello 1
The Lady Tigers opened the tournament Thursday afternoon against the host team Pocatello, the District V champions. Showing the effects of not playing for a week, Mountain Home started slow, but put together six hits to score five runs in the fourth inning.
It was more than enough for star pitcher Nickayla Skinner, who limited the Lady Indians to just two hits and one run as the Lady Tigers prevailed 5-1.
Coach Asbury was happy to get that first win and happy to see his girls finally get to Pocatello pitcher Sam Nalley.
"She's a great pitcher and that's a pretty good team there. We were kind of stymied there for three innings, but we're too good in my mind to keep us down like that, and it was just a matter of time before we got it going, and did all our damage there in one inning. At this time of year, Nick's throwing the ball well and if we can put the bats together, we're going to be a tough team to beat."
Madison Siefferman, Nickayla Skinner, and Courtney Christiansen all had two hits for Mountain Home.Siefferman had an RBI, Skinner had two doubles and Christiansen had two RBIs. Rachel Warila had a two-run double and Megan Kelly and Lindsay Sessions also had hits.
Skinner struck out 13 batters and limited Pocatello to just two hits.
Mtn. Home 12, Hillcrest 1
The Pocatello win on Thursday put the Lady Tigers against Hillcrest, which had opened the tourney with a 6-5, 10-inning win over Jerome. Mountain Home pounded out 16 hits in disposing of the Lady Knights from Hillcrest, 12-1, in five innings.
Mountain Home hit five home runs in the game, Nickayla Skinner hitting two three-run shots, the first one a mammoth blast that hit the bumper of her parents' van out in the parking lot.
Charde Huntington had three hits, including two solo home runs. Arlene Futch also had three hits, Megan Kelly and Rachel Warila both had two hits. Kelly had a home run and Warila had a double. Courtney Christiansen had a two-run double, Madison Siefferman had an RBI-single, and Jennica Quintal and Lindsay Sessions also had hits.
Skinner struck out 15 and gave up just two hits in the win to improve to 22-0 on the season.
"That was pretty impressive," said Coach Asbury of the team's hitting performance. "The long ball was the key today. We had people on base and the girls came through. That's what's going to do it for us, when we get timely hitting from our veterans, and we got that today."
Kuna 3, Mtn. Home 2
The Hillcrest win put the Lady Tigers in the semi-finals Friday afternoon against a familiar foe in Kuna, which had defeated Blackfoot and Lakeland. Mountain Home had beaten Kuna four straight times this year, including for the district championship on May 13, but this time Kuna prevailed 3-2.
Megan Kelly singled in Jennica Quintal in the first inning to give the Lady Tigers a 1-0 lead. The scored stayed at 1-0 until the top of the sixth, when the Lady Tigers scored a second time, Kelly again singling in Quintal to make it 2-0.
Kuna got a run in the bottom of the sixth when Aubree Newman doubled in Ashley Arizana, who had reached base on a throwing error.
In the bottom of the seventh, Becky Smith doubled to right to score two runs with one out as Kuna came from behind to stun the Lady Tigers 3-2.
"They came through with the hits when they had to," said Coach Asbury after the game. "Getting Lou (Lindsay Sessions) thrown out there, aggressive base-running on my behalf, sending runners home and they'd make perfect throws at the plate. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't do that, but we put the pressure on them and they came through. In the past, we've had to play three on Saturday to get to that title game, so we came here with the mindset of playing four games, but I guess we'll have to play six to get it done."
Mtn. Home 8, Hillcrest 4
The loss to Kuna on Friday put the Lady Tigers against Hillcrest Saturday morning in a battle to see who would face Kuna in the championship round. The Lady Tigers started slow but took the lead in the third inning and went on to an 8-4 win.
Hillcrest's Cassie Wood hit for the cycle against Nickayla Skinner. She singled and scored in the first inning and doubled and scored in the third to give Hillcrest a 2-0 lead.
After leaving two runners on base in both the first and second innings, Mountain Home struck for three runs in the bottom of the third to take the lead and added three more in the fourth on their way to an 8-4 win to advance to the championship round against Kuna.
The Lady Tigers pounded out 14 hits against Hillcrest, led by Jennica Quintal, who had three hits, including a triple, and scored two runs. Arlene Futch, Megan Kelly and Charde Huntington each had two hits. Futch had an RBI, Kelly had a double and an RBI and Huntington had two doubles. Rachel Warila had a two-run triple, Nickayla Skinner and Blas Lord both had RBI-doubles. Skinner had two RBIs. Madison Siefferman and Courtney Christiansen also had hits.
Skinner struck out 13 batters to improve to 23-1 on the season.
"We were on an emotional roller coaster today. I didn't know if we were equipped to do this. We got down and had some mopey faces, but they got things going and got the win," Asbury said.
Mtn. Home 3, Kuna 1
The Lady Tigers faced Kuna in the championship round, needing to beat Kuna twice to win the championship. Mountain Home came back from a two-hour snow delay to take the lead and go on and beat Kuna 3-1 to force the second championship game.
Kuna scored a run in the first to take a 1-0 lead. The game was delayed for a couple of hours after three innings due to blizzard conditions, with Kuna up 1-0.
After the game was resumed, the Lady Tigers put together three hits, two walks and a sacrifice fly, to score two runs to take the lead 2-1.
Mountain Home got back-to-back doubles from Jennica Quintal and Nickayla Skinner to plate another run in the top of the sixth to increase the lead to 3-1.
Skinner allowed just one hit after the weather delay, as Mountain Home won 3-1 to force another championship game.
Jennica Quintal had two hits and scored two runs in the game.
Nickayla Skinner had an RBI-double and Arlene Futch, Megan Kelly, Blas Lord and Courtney Christiansen also had hits. Christiansen and Rachel Warila each had an RBI.
Skinner scattered four hits and struck out 14 Kuna batters to improve to 24-1 on the season.
Mtn. Home 9, Kuna 8
In a game that went back-and forth, Mountain Home made it six out of seven against Kuna this year, holding off the Lady Kavemen 9-8 for the state title.
Both teams scored a run in the first inning. Mountain Home added another run in the second and Kuna tied it with a run in the top of the third, but Mountain Home scored two in the bottom half of the inning to go up 4-2.
Kuna tied it at 4-4 with two runs in the top of the fourth. The Lady Tigers regained the lead, 5-4, in the bottom of the inning.
Kuna scored three runs in the top of the fifth to retake the lead 7-5, but Mountain Home answered with three to go back ahead 8-7.
Mountain Home added another run in the sixth to make it 9-7.
Kuna got back within one, 9-8, and had the tying and go-ahead runs on base with two out, but Nickayla Skinner struck out Baylie Smith to end the ball game, the Lady Tigers prevailing 9-8.
The Lady Tigers had 16 hits in the game, with Madison Siefferman, Arlene Futch, Jennica Quintal, Nickayla Skinner, Rachel Warila, Courtney Christiansen and Charde Huntington all getting two hits. Siefferman had two doubles and three RBIs, Futch had a double and RBI, Skinner had a double and home run and three RBIs, Megan Kelly also had a home run and RBI and Blas Lord also had a hit.
Skinner gave up 13 hits but struck out nine and improved to 25-1 on the season.
Coach Asbury was glad to see his Lady Tigers regroup from their Friday loss and come back and win it all.
"To be standing here right now is not a surprise, because we're that good, but the morning didn't start off so well. You know, I couldn't think of a better test to find who the best team is than to come out here and win three games with an inch of snow on our backs."
Asbury was proud of his team's back-to-back state championships.
"I'm fighting emotions right now. I don't know which one is sweeter, the first or the second, but they deserve it, they're the best!"
The Lady Tigers finish the season 29-3 overall.
Nickayola Skinner set a couple 4A state records at the tournament. She had 13 RBIs to break the record of eight, hit three home runs to tie the record shared by former teammate Sammy Dodge (whom she'll join at College of Idaho next year), and she struck out 76 batters in the tournament to break the record of 72 she set last year.