Coeur d’Alene falls in first round of state baseball tournament

For the second year in a row, the Coeur d’Alene Vikings baseball team watched its 5A state title hopes vanish at the hands of the Mountain View Mavericks.

After losing 4-3 last season in the first round, CdA fell 10-2 to Mountain View on Thursday night at Hawks Stadium in Boise.

“You can’t fly out 12 times and expect to score a lot of runs and win the game,” Vikings coach Nick Rook said.

“You have to give Mountain View credit. They had a good approach to just put the ball in play and see what happens. And a lot of good things happened for them tonight.”

Not much good happened for the Vikings (22-3), whose only losses prior to the state tournament were to Rocky Mountain.

CdA starter Mikey Schmidt scattered seven hits and yielded five earned runs over 5 1/3 innings in suffering his first loss of the season.

The Vikings took advantage of a Mountain View error in the bottom of the first to take a 1-0 lead.

CdA’s Joe Roletto reached on a one-out error, moved to third on a double by Levi Pereira, and scored on a sacrifice fly to center field by Bubba Duran.

Mountain View knotted the score at 1 in the top of the second after a controversy. With runners at first and third and one out, the Vikings appeared to have turned a double play.

Mountain View coach Matt Rasmussen protested to both umpires that the throw to first pulled CdA’s first baseman Sean Sutton off the bag. After conferring for several minutes, the runner was ruled safe.

Mountain View’s next batter Cody Reilly reached on an error, scoring a run to tie the game.

In the top of the third, Mountain View took a 2-1 lead on Devon Pogue’s RBI double.

Mountain View added a pair of runs to in the fourth to build a 4-1 lead on two RBI singles by Francis and Connor Odneal.

Duran also drove in the Vikings’ other run with a single in the seventh.

The Vikings fall into the consolation bracket – a bracket they won last season – to face Idaho Falls, 12-2 losers to Rocky Mountain, at noon today.

“Tomorrow is all about team pride,” Rook said. “We’re going to find out if these guys can rebound from a tough loss and come back and play well in the consolation bracket.”

Pereira led CdA, which had eight hits, with a pair of doubles, while Rolby Dehaas added two singles. Nick Nyquist added a double and scored a run.

Timberline 10, Lewiston 3: Timberline (18-7) came up with a seven-run third inning with the help of three Lewiston errors on its way to a victory over the Bengals (11-13) at Boise Hawks Memorial Stadium.

The Bengals will play Highland, a 10-0 loser to Eagle, in the consolation semifinals at 9 a.m. today.

4A

Bishop Kelly 6, Lakeland 2: The Hawks (16-6) could only must three hits against Bishop Kelly (25-1) in falling 6-2 at Rodeo Park in Nampa. Lakeland will play Bonneville, a 3-1 loser to Skyview, in the consolation semifinals at 9 a.m. today.

3A

St. Maries 2, South Fremont 0: Ashton Stephenson threw a seven-hit shutout and the Lumberjacks (12-9) advanced to the semifinals with a win over South Fremont (13-8) at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore. St. Maries will play Fruitland, a 4-3 winner over Teton, at 6 p.m. today.

Stephenson struck out three and walked three. He also drove in the Lumberjacks’ first run, bringing in Isaac Walters with a double.

Ray Flowers drove in David Barber with a single in the bottom of the fifth.

Snake River 5, Timberlake 0: Shane Parkinson shut out the Tigers (14-7) on two hits at Treasure Valley CC. The Tigers play Payette at 9 a.m. today in the consolation semifinals. Payette lost 6-5 to Kimberly.