Lady Tigers beat Bishop Kelly

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers managed a split in last week's SIC 4A conference softball games, winning at home against Bishop Kelly, and losing on the road at Emmett.

Mountain Home 3

Bishop Kelly 2

Ashley Kipp capped off a three-run fifth inning for Mountain Home last Tuesday, knocking in the tying and go ahead runs in a 3-2 win over the Lady Knights at Mountain Home.

Bishop Kelly managed single runs in the first and fourth to take a 2-0 lead over the Lady Tigers and Mountain Home pitcher Ali Hillman.

The Lady Tigers left seven runners on base during the first four innings without scoring, but came up big in the fifth. Paula Doerr drew a walk with one out, and Ali Hillman reached on an error. Sammy Dodge then singled in Doerr, and Ashley Kipp, with two on and two out, singled for the third time in the game, this one plating two runs to give Mountain Home the lead.

Ali Hillman then kept Bishop Kelly scoreless the rest of the way to even her record at 6-6, giving up just four hits while striking out six and walking four.

"It was a good game," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger softball coach Joy Memmelaar after the game. "The girls played a nice game. Defensively, we were on every ball. That's the first game we've had all season without an error. The played an excellent defensive game and we hit the ball well, but couldn't get our runners in until the fifth, but the girls came through and got the job done, so I'm real pleased."

Ashley Kipp had three hits and drove in two runs to lead the Lady Tigers at the plate.

Sammy Dodge had an RBI single, and Ali Hillman and Dani Sloderbeck also had hits.

Emmett 5

Mountain Home 1

Two days after having their first errorless game, the Lady Tigers committed two, which led to three unearned runs in a 5-1 loss at Emmett last Thursday.

Jordan Reinstra smacked a two-run double in the first inning to give Emmett a 2-0 lead.

Mountain Home's only run came in the fourth, when Kim Hamilton led off the inning reaching on an error, and came home on a two-out single by Ali Hillman. Hillman's single was the only hit the Lady Tigers managed off Jody Zillner, who struck out eight and walked just one.

That's not to say Mountain Home could not hit Zillner, but a lot of the swings were "right at'ems," 12 of the outs, to be exact.

"Sometimes that's the way it goes," said Coach Memmelaar, in comments after the game. "We made some strategic errors -- not necessarily horrible ones -- and they had some strategic hits that made the difference in a close game that we knew this was going to be, and that's not going to help you."

Michelle Reynolds suffered the loss, which evened her record at 4-4 on the season. She gave up five runs on eight hits, striking out four, walking one and hitting one, with the last three runs unearned.

"Michelle did a fantastic job of pitching and helped herself out by working out of some holes where it could have been dangerous."

The Lady Tigers close out their regular season schedule this week. They were at Vallivue yesterday (Tuesday), and host Nampa tomorrow (Thursday). They took a 5-7 conference record and 10-10 overall mark to Vallivue.

"We played well against Vallivue the first time," said Memmelaar. "Hopefully we can do that again, and we lost a close one that we probably could have won, or should have won at Nampa, so that's going to be another tough one for us, but hopefully the girls will come through as we get ready for district the next week."

The District III 4A Softball Tournament will be May 9-12 at Bishop Kelly.