Lady Tigers snap losing streak

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers dropped 12 straight softball games to start the season, but picked up their first win of the season Friday at home against Caldwell.

Kuna 11, Mountain Home

(Five innings)

Kuna's Lady Kavemen scored in every inning on their way to an 11-1 five inning win over the Lady Tigers last Wednesday at Memmelaar Field in Mountain Home. The game was originally scheduled for April 14, but poor weather conditions caused the game to be played a day later.

Mountain Home's lone run came on a first inning home run by Maeghan Pomerantz. Taylor Reed had two hits and Angie Shockey added a hit as the Lady Tigers managed just four hits off Kuna pitcher Nicole Arizana.

McKenna Lewis suffered the loss for Mountain Home, giving up the 11 runs -- eight of them earned -- on 12 hits. She also struck out three batters.

"We had a tough day today," said Mountain Home Lady Tigers softball coach Ron Nicolosi after the game. "We were outhit today. Kuna was aggressive and took advantage when we missed our spots."

The Lady Tigers made some mistakes defensively, but most of those were late in the game, the coach added during his post-game comments.

"(Nicole) Arizana's speed caught a lot of our players off guard, and we didn't adjust to it very well," Nicolosi said. "I thought we should have taken advantage of how straight her ball was, but we didn't.

"It was nice to see Maeghan hit the first Tiger homerun in our ballpark. She hit it well, but the wind almost kept it in. It was a great moment for her and the team. CJ (Bish) also had a very good defensive game. She chased down some fly balls, but what was most impressive, she laid out and made a great catch in the fifth. It's so inspiring to see a player give so much even when the score is so lopsided."

Caldwell 10, Mountain Home 9

Caldwell scored twice in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge the Lady Tigers, 10-9, Thursday at Caldwell.

Mountain home jumped out to a 7-2 lead, but the Lady Cougars scored six in the bottom of the fourth inning to take an 8-7 lead. Mountain tied it at 8 in the fifth and went ahead by one with a run in the top of the seventh, but the Lady Cougars put the game away with two runs in the bottom of the seventh.

CJ Bish and Taylor Reed had big games at the plate, Bish getting three hits, Reed, four. Bish had a double and a home run, and Reed had three doubles and an RBI. Ashten Harrigan had two hits including a double and drove in a run, and McKenna Lewis also had a hit and RBI.

McKenna Lewis, who relieved Mountain Home starter Ryan Floyd in the fourth, suffered the loss, despite striking out eight Caldwell batters in 2 2/3 innings.

"Three costly errors in a row after we had two out in the fourth (inning) cost us this game," Coach Nicolosi said. "We gave them the momentum in that inning and we didn't recover. If we make just one of those plays , we keep a sizable lead in the game. It was a heartbreaking loss, but we play them again tomorrow, and I'm feeling pretty confident about our chances."

Mountain Home 13, Caldwell 6

After coming oh-so-close to their first win at Caldwell on Thursday, the Lady Tigers got things clicking on Friday at home, downing the Lady Cougars, 13-6.

Mountain Home jumped out to a 5-1 lead after two, upped it to 13-4 after five and went on in for the win.

The Lady Tigers pounded out 15 hits, lead by CJ Bish with four hits, which included a grand slam home run. Ryan Floyd had three hits including a double and also drove in four runs.

Ashten Harrigan, Paris Mederios and McKenna Lewis all had two hits, Harrigan had a home run and two RBI, Mederios drove in one run. Taylor Reed and Breanna Tindall also had hits and RBI.

McKenna Lewis went the distance in the pitching circle, striking out six while picking up her first victory.

"It was nice to break into the win column today," Coach Nicolosi said. "It was great to see the girls limit that big inning that has plagued us this season. I was proud of the way they answered in the bottom of the third after making a few defensive mistakes in the top of the third.

"Offensively, we hit the ball well," the coach added. "Even some of our outs were hit hard, and you like seeing things like that. McKenna (Lewis) pitched well. She pitched ahead in the count and that really helped her. CJ (Bish) hit her first grand slam, and there wasn't any doubt about it, she hit it well. Ashten (Harrigan) also hit the ball out of the park. This was a great team win."

The win improved the Lady Tigers to 1-8 in conference and 1-12 overall.

They traveled to Wood River on Monday and went to Skyview in conference play on Tuesday before returning home to host Bishop Kelly on Thursday and playing the Lady Knights at Bishop Kelly High School on Friday.