Coeur d’Alene reaches Little League World Series with win over Montana

Christopher Reynolds struck out 10 over five innings and Coeur d’Alene Little League beat Montana (Boulder Arrowhead) 2-0 in the Northwest Region championship game at Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino, California on Saturday.

Coeur d’Alene advances to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where they will face the Great Lakes Region champion on Friday.

CdA becomes only the second Idaho team to qualify for the Little League World Series, joining South Boise in 1999.

Reynolds reached his pitch limit on the last batter of the fifth inning, a strikeout with a runner at second to end the inning. He allowed two hits and four walks in his second win of the Northwest Region tourney.

Braeden Newby went 2 for 3 for CdA, while Avrey Cherry and Jake Dannenberg were the run scorers.

Reynolds struck out the side in the first and worked around two two-out walks in the second.

Coeur d’Alene had two on with one out in the third. Reynolds singled up the middle but center fielder Caleb Anderson threw out Cherry trying to score from second.

Dannenberg moved up to third on the throw and two pitches later scrambled home on a wild pitch to put CdA up 1-0.

In the bottom half, Montana had a runner reach second on a walk and wild pitch, but Reynolds picked up his sixth strikeout of the day to end the threat.

Jakob Wilcox came up with Montana’s first hit of the game, a two-out single in the fourth, but Reynolds coaxed a foul pop up to get out of the inning.

With one down in the fifth, Cherry reached on a error and went to second on the overthrow. He moved to third on a groundout and scored on a throwing error as Reynolds’ liner up the middle was knocked down but thrown away.

Montana’s Cooper Tyson singled with one down in the fifth, but Reynolds got a ground out and his 10th strikeout to keep it at 2-0.

Montana loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth against reliever Alexander Currie, but Currie got a popup to short to punch CdA’s ticket to Williamsport.

Montana starter Carson Jenkins went five innings plus one batter. He allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits and two walks with nine strikeouts.

Coeur d’Alene beat Oregon (Beaverton) 8-3 on Friday to reach the title game.