Lady Tigers drop first SIC 4A contests

The Mountam Home Lady Tigers came away winless in their first two SIC 4A Conference softball games of the season, but showed promise of things to come.

Kuna 6

Mountain Home 1

Fielding errors opened the door to four unearned runs by Kuna in the top of the first inning last Tuesday at Mountain Home, as the Lady Tigers fell behind 4-0 to Kuna. Mountain Home was unable to come back, as Kuna's Brooke Judy held the Lady Tigers to just three hits while striking out 14.

Mountain Home's lone run came in the fourth, as Kim Hamilton led off the inning with a single, went to second on a sacrifice by Paula Doerr, then came home on a single by Ali Hillman.

"We didn't come to play that first inning and made some errors, that were costly," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Joy Memmelaar after the game.

"Had we been ready to play at the beginning of the game, it would have been a 2-1 ball game.

"They picked it up and started hitting the ball and played better defense, but you've got to play all seven innings to have a good game."

Trish Van Meer had the only other hit by Mountain Home.

Ali Hillman suffered the loss, despite giving up just four hits. She struck out six, walked four and hit one batter.

Caldwell 4

Mountain Home 0

The Lady Tigers out-hit Caldwell Friday but were unable to get their base runners home once they got on base, dropping a 4-0 conference game to the Lady Cougars at Caldwell.

Ashley Kipp doubled with one out in the second inning and made it as far as third, but the inning ended before she could get home.

Kim Hampton and Paula Doerr had back-to-back singles with two out in the third, but failed to score.

Mountain Home also had base runners in the fourth, fifth and sixth but once again failed to score.

Caldwell scored their first run in the fourth, as Randi Parker led off the inning with a single, and came home on a double by Candice Schneider.

Ali Hillman gave up her first two walks of the game to lead off the Caldwell fifth. Hits by Sammi Jo Nancolas and Randi Parker plated two more runs before Hillman retired three in a row to get out of the inning without any further damage.

Caldwell added one more run in the sixth to make it a 4-0 advantage.

"We're still having a little difficulty getting them (our base runners) across the plate," said Coach Memmelaar. "We made a couple of running errors there, and when we got runners on, we just didn't get a hit to get them in. We've still got things to work on, but that was a little better outing and gives us somewhere to go."

Ali Hillman suffered the loss, her second against one win, despite limiting the Lady Cougars to just six hits while striking out eight batters.

"Ali did a great job on the mound, just dominated up there, showed them that she can do the job, so that's a good positive aspect from today's game," said Memmelaar.

Hillman and Ashley Kipp both had two hits for Mountain Home. Kim Hamilton, Paula Doerr and Sammy Dodge also collected hits.

The Lady Tigers had a non-conference game with Wood River at Mountain Home yesterday (Tuesday).

They return to action next Tuesday (March 29) at home against Skyview in conference action.