Minico defeats Post Falls in title game

BOISE – The season started with an injury to their top pitcher who didn’t throw until the next-to-last game of the year. In between, there were three suspensions followed by two players quitting.

So if one had asked Post Falls High baseball coach Mick Zeller if he thought his team would end up playing in the State 4A championship game, he would have answered with an emphatic no.

Zeller’s team was overmatched Saturday afternoon, falling 5-1 to Minico in the state final at Bishop Kelly High School.

But the Trojans had many reasons to celebrate, and their downcast spirits following the loss lasted about as long as it took them to board the bus for the long ride back home.

“It was a very special season,” Zeller said. “We’ve come through more adversity this season than I’ve had in 17 years of coaching – suspensions, guys moving up and down (between varsity and junior varsity). … We’ve got two freshmen playing in a state championship game, a sophomore behind the plate and two more sophomores in the field. It’s not your normal lineup, but we had guys stepping up left and right.”

Post Falls (17-11) never got anything rolling on offense. The Trojans scored their lone run in the fifth after Mike Aune led off with a double. After Josh Bice sacrificed Aune to third, sophomore Ray Hansen hit a sacrifice fly.

The Trojans managed just five hits. Just once did Post Falls have more than one runner on base.

District IV-V champ Minico (24-7) didn’t exactly wear out the base paths – at least in terms of hits. Six Spartans drew walks, and two of those came around to score in the second inning.

The Spartans’ third run, in the fifth, also scored after a leadoff walk. In the top of the seventh, Minico squelched any hopes of a comeback when it scored two runs. Greg Christensen, who reached on a single, moved to third when Jarred Tracy lined a double to the deep right-field corner. But Christensen was held at third base. He scored when Trojans first baseman Cody Brubaker threw wildly over Josh Bice’s head at third. Moments later, Justin Bennett knocked in the final run on an infield hit deep into the hole at shortstop.

Back-to-back errors allowed two Trojans to reach with one out in Post Falls’ final at-bat. But left-handed reliever Andy Carlisle got back-to-back strikeouts to finish the Trojans.

“Like I said, we overcame a ton of adversity to get to where we were,” Zeller said.

Post Falls, which earned its first state trophy in its second trip to state, graduates just three seniors and will return 12.

“I’m hoping that we get some of these guys playing summer ball,” Zeller said. “Two years ago when we came down … we had a lot of young kids, too. But then we had like two kids play (American) Legion the entire summer. We need to get eight or nine of them playing Legion and that’s where the success is going to come. It just makes a word of difference.”

The season exceeded Brubaker’s expectations.

“It’s been one helluva season,” Brubaker said.