Lady Tigers lose to Kuna, regroup for win vs Kimberly

Facing one of the state's top-ranked teams, the Lady Tigers found the going tough as they fell to Kuna before they regrouped to take down Kimberly as this year's varsity softball season continued.

Mountain Home 0, Kuna 10

Kuna's Lady Kavemen erupted onto the scoreboard with seven runs at the top of the third and added three more in the fifth as they shut out the Lady Tigers during regular season action March 14 at East Side Park.

Mountain Home came into the game knowing they were facing one of the top three pitchers in the state with coach Ron Nicolosi admitting that his team was simply overmatched.

"I thought the girls gave an excellent effort and didn't give in or give up," Nicolosi said.

Despite the loss, the coach saw some positives from his Lady Tigers.

"We had some goals going into it, and we definitely achieved them," Nicolosi said. "Defensively, we made the routine plays and limited our errors."

The coach credited the efforts of players like third basemen Kayla Young, who turned in a spectacular performance by effectively handling every balls hit in her direction. Meanwhile, pitcher Jaden Lancaster finished the afternoon with none of the batters scoring and allowing just one run off four walks.

"That says a lot about how our defense backed her up and how she threw great pitches when she needed to," Nicolosi said. "Some of the walks could be attributed to the coaches working on certain pitches."

The coach added that his team needed to see the type of consistent pitching from teams like Kuna to gain experience on how to approach that type of challenge.

"We did a lot of great things today, but we will keep working on getting better and dialing it in," he added.

Mountain Home 10, Kimberly 7

With the scoreboard knotted at the bottom of the seventh, Ryan Floyd scored a homerun as the Lady Tigers slipped past Kimberly on Thursday.

Mountain Home limited the Lady Bulldogs to just two runs after six innings with the Lady Tigers picking up runs during five of its times at bat. At the top of the seventh, Kimberly erupted at the plate with five runs before the Lady Tigers sealed the win.

Floyd led the team's offense with seven RBIs, including four runs. Paris Mederios was credited with three runs during the evening.

On defense, pitcher Jaden Lancaster was credited with two strikeouts and 15 first-pitch strikes during nearly seven innings of play before she was relieved by Floyd at the mound.

Nicolosi felt his Lady Tigers played six solid innings that afternoon.

"Defensively, we made nearly every routine play that came our way during those six innings," he said. "The seventh, we made four of our six errors and that allowed them to tie the game up."

The game was bitter sweet, the coach admitted. The Lady Tigers had the thrill of Ryan Floyd's game-winning homerun although Lancaster wasn't credited with the win despite her nearly seven innings of outstanding work.

"It's early and we are still continuing to grow as players, and as a team, and I'm sure we will clean it up," Nicolosi said.

Offensively, the team continues to grow that included Floyd's solid night at the plate.

"Besides the walk off, she also had three doubles," the coach said. "We had 10 hits, which was enough to win today, but we also had nine strikeouts, which I thought was high and would like to see us reduce that."

The coach added that his team took another positive step forward in their season.

"That's our goal -- to get better in every game," he said.

The Lady Tigers return to action on Friday as they host Ridgevue at 5 p.m. at East Side Park. They hit to the road March 31 as they head to Nampa to compete in the Sugar Town Tournament before they travel to Vallivue on April 3 for a 5 p.m. contest.