Lady Tigers stay in top seat after Nampa, Kuna wins

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers picked up two more wins to stay in first place in the SIC 4A, downing Nampa and Kuna.

Mountain Home 4, Nampa 1

The Lady Tigers broke open a scoreless game with three runs in the fourth inning to down Nampa 4-1 last Tuesday in Nampa.

Back-to-back triples by Caitlyn Sheehy and Courtney Christiansen, followed by singles by Madi Karst and Heather Adams, plated three runs to give Mountain Home a 3-0 lead.

Nampa scored an unearned run in the fifth inning and had the bases loaded with just one out, but Heather Adams struck out two straight batters to get out of the inning with no further damage.

Mountain Home added another run in the sixth to close out the scoring for the game, a 4-1 win for the Lady Tigers.

"It wasn't particularly a good performance in the (batter's) box," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Chris Asbury after the game. "We did get quite a few extra-base hits, but hit a lot of balls right at girls.

It's that time of the year where defense usually keeps people in games, and they played defense and we hit the ball at people and they made plays, so we're going to eke out wins like this the rest of the way."

Heather Adams picked up the win to improve to 12-3 on the season. She allowed just three hits and struck out six.

"Considering some of the mound conditions, she wasn't particularly happy with the situation out there," said Coach Asbury. "But you know what, these kids adapt, and she did a great job adapting to a situation she wasn't really in favor of."

Courtney Christiansen had two triples, scored two runs and drove in one run. Caitlin Sheehy had a triple, Madi Karst and Heather Adams had RBI-singles and Madison Siefferman also had a hit.

Mountain Home 5, Kuna 3 (eight innings)

The Lady Tigers overcame an early deficit to battle back and take the lead, and when the game went to extra innings scored twice in the eighth to win 5-3.

A throwing error opened the door for two unearned runs for the Lady Kavemen in the first inning. Mountain Home plated a run in the fourth and scored two in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead, but Kuna pushed across a run in the sixth to tie it at 3-3.

Neither team scored in the seventh, forcing extra innings.

In high school softball, in extra innings, the team starts the inning with the last batter to bat in the previous inning at second base, so Courtney Christiansen started the inning at second. Madi Karst sacrifice-bunted her to third. Rachel Warila then walked and stole second.

Heather Adams then launched a fly ball to left field, that, had it not been for the strong wind blowing in, would have left the ball park. It stayed in, but the left fielder was unable to catch it, and Christiansen and Warila both scored, Adams ending up at second with a two-run double.

In the bottom of the eighth, Baylie Smith, Kuna's runner at second base, stole third. Heather Adams struck out Becky Smith for the first out. Carissa Hughes then popped up to the catcher, Ashley Sessions, and Sidney Shaw flew out to Courtney Christiansen in centerfield for the third out, ending the ball game.

Coach Asbury was pleased with the effort by his Lady Tigers against Kuna.

"These (Mountain Home and Kuna) are two great programs as long as I've been associated with Mountain Home softball, so you know we're going to get these types of ball games," he said. "I'm real proud of the kids tonight. They came through in the clutch."

Caitlyn Sheehy and Rachel Warila both had two hits for Mountain Home. Sheehy had an RBI. Madison Siefferman, Morgan Vivier and Heather Adams also had hits. Siefferman had an RBI and Adams had a double that knocked in two runs, which proved to be the game winners.

Adams went the distance for the win, improving to 13-3 overall. The win improved the Lady Tigers to 9-2 in conference and 13-6 overall.

The Lady Tigers lead the conference with three more games left in the regular season. They hosted Columbia Tuesday, travel to Skyview today (Wednesday), and host Middleton Thursday.

The District III 4A softball tournament runs May 9-12, with the higher seeds hosting the first two rounds, and the final two days held at Columbia High School in Nampa.