Prairie Has The Upper Hand, Wins 5-3 In Legion Opener

Forget it was a season opener. Disregard also that it was a non-league contest.

The Prairie-Coeur d’Alene American Legion baseball game counted in at least one unofficial, non-statistical category - the pride department.

So put a notch on the side of the Prairie Cardinals, who held off the Lumbermen 5-3 in a nine-inning twilight opener Friday at McEuen Field.

It may go down as one of the quickest nine-inning games - 2 hours, 34 minutes - either team will play this summer. The first contest of league doubleheaders will be nine innings, the nightcaps seven.

The game may have had little significance, but it still was a contest pitting rivals.

“Both teams were out there trying to win; both (teams) played everybody,” said Prairie coach Darren Taylor, who obviously was pleased with the win but wasn’t doing cartwheels, either. “We made some mistakes but all in all it was a great first game. We made some big plays when we had to and made some great pitches when we needed to.”

CdA coach Paul Mather wasn’t overly disappointed with the loss.

“It’s still a baseball game against (Prairie),” Mather said. “But we’re going to be a little more laid back early on, we’re going to teach more, we’re going to have way more patience early on and then see what happens at the end.”

Both teams played without two of their top players, who were playing in an all-star series in southern Idaho for high school seniors. Prairie, a combination of Post Falls and Lakeland players, was missing Brett DeBoer (pitcher) and Josh Phelps (catcher), while CdA was missing Jesse Hoorelbeke (third baseman/ pitcher) and Todd Hughes (center fielder).

After three scoreless innings, CdA took a brief 1-0 lead in the fourth. Nick Rook led off with a single and scored on Ben Johnston’s double to the fence in left-center field. The Lums stranded Johnston.

Prairie tied the score in the ensuing inning. James Ownbey, who was hit twice by CdA pitchers and also took a sharp grounder off a bad hop in the throat, scored on a fielder’s choice.

The Cards took the lead for good in the sixth with a single run. Al Bevacqua’s sacrifice fly plated Kevin Bridge, who had reached on an infield single, moved to second on an error and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt.

Four of Prairie’s five runs were unearned. The Cards added two unearned runs in the seventh to extend their lead to 4-1. CdA trimmed it to 4-3 in the bottom of the inning before Prairie added its final run in the ninth on a single by Chip Stutheit.

CdA threatened in its final at-bat, loading the bases with no outs on an infield hit and back-to-back walks. But Jake Medlock, in relief of his cousin Brad, struck out three straight Lums to clinch the win.

Brad Medlock struck out six in six innings. Although Jake Medlock allowed runners in his three innings, he worked out of trouble. He also benefitted from two double plays.

Prairie returns to action today when it hosts Mead/Rogers in a non-league doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. at North Idaho College. CdA travels to Missoula on Sunday for a single nine-inning game at noon and Prairie plays host to Moscow in a non-league twin bill at 1.

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