Lake City Follows Split With Sprint

Lake City baseball coach Cory Bridges appreciated his team’s efforts following Saturday’s doubleheader split with Post Falls.

But Bridges instructed his Timberwolves to do some extra running after 14 innings’ work.

Seems a few players were late that morning to catch the team bus. Even a win and gung-ho play couldn’t dim Bridges’ disappointment in what he viewed as no joking matter.

Especially since Saturday began the “real” season of Inland Empire League baseball.

The IEL openers were generally well-played on a blustery day at Brett James Memorial Field.

Post Falls senior Ryan Kempton didn’t waste many pitches in the first game, a 3-0 shutout. The righthander allowed three hits, struck out 11 and walked one.

In the second game, the long ball staked Lake City to an early lead and also rallied the Trojans late, but the Timberwolves prevailed 6-3.

“I got two great pitching performances today,” Bridges said. “I’m tickled pink.

“Defensively, we played pretty good. We didn’t make many errors.”

“When two games get done in under 4 hours, I know both teams have played pretty well,” said Post Falls coach John Pettoello.

Kempton (1-2) faced just 26 batters, as the Timberwolves went down in order in the last three innings.

Lake City senior Kevin Moering (1-2) countered with a three-hitter and seven strikeouts.

Post Falls connected for two of those hits in the second, including a lead-off double by sophomore designated hitter James Ownbey. Right fielder Joel Davis followed with an infield single and later scored off Moering’s two-base error. Moering worked out of the inning with a pair of strikeouts, and Post Falls led 1-0.

Lake City stranded two baserunners in the top of the fourth. Post Falls tacked on a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of that inning.

“(Kempton is) not throwing at the top of his ability level, but he’s still as good as you’ll see,” Bridges said. “We struggled early. We tried to do things out of our ability to hit him, and you can’t do that.”

Four Timberwolves recorded two hits apiece in the late game. Senior catcher Luke Anderson tagged a pair of extra-base hits.

Anderson ignited Lake City in the first with a three-run homer over the 340-foot left-center field fence.

Post Falls gave up an unearned run in the second, and turned a double play between first and second basemen Ryan Novak and Chris Juhlin to get out of the inning.

Lake City junior Ryan Scharnhorst hurled a four-hitter through five innings, with seven strikeouts and one walk.

The Post Falls bats stirred in the sixth, with Novak lofting a solo homer to center. Jake Medlock followed with a single and scored off catcher Ryan Ries’ homer to leftcenter, which pulled the Trojans within 5-3.

Anderson’s double in the seventh set up Lake City’s final score.

Ramsrud relieved Scharnhorst (1-0) in the seventh, fanning the first two batters he faced. Left fielder Blair Hammer ended the game with a diving shoestring catch of a Joel Davis ball.

“Every home run was a legitimate home run,” Bridges said. “The balls went over (the fence). Luke Anderson hit the tail end out of his and so did everybody else.”

For Novak and Ries, it was their first game back after three-game suspensions for athletic code violations.

Post Falls (1-3) travels to Rathdrum on Thursday to meet Lakeland in a non-league doubleheader. Lake City (3-4) is idle until April 15, when it resumes IEL play at Lewiston.

Post Falls 3, Lake City 0

Lake City 000 000 0 - 0 3 1

Post Falls 010 200 X - 3 3 1

Moering and Anderson. Kempton and Selberg. W-Kempton (1-2). L-Moering (1-2).

LC-Scharenberg, Packard, Ramsrud. PF-Ownbey, Davis, B. Medlock. 2B-Ramsrud, Ownbey.

Lake City 6, Post Falls 3

Lake City 310 010 1 - 6 9 2

Post Falls 000 003 0 - 3 7 4

Scharnhorst, Ramsrud (7) and Anderson. J. Medlock, Ownbey (4), B. Medlock (7) and Ries. W-Scharnhorst (1-0). L-J. Medlock (0-1).

LC-Ramsrud 2, Shriner 2, Anderson 2, Scharnhorst 2, Whiteside. PF-Novak 2, J. Medlock 2, B. Medlock 2, Ries. 2B-Whiteside, Anderson, B. Medlock. HR-Anderson, Novak, Ries.

At St. Maries, Jason Holdahl hit a three-run homerun in the first inning and struck out six batters to help the Lumberjacks win the second game of a non-league double header 9-2, to salvage a split with Sandpoint.

The Bulldogs won the opener 12-7 behind Mike Lindgren’s completegame, 10-strikeout performance.

Lindgren benefitted from Sandpoints’ seven-run seventh inning outburst.

Soccer

Coeur d’Alene midfielder Ty Kovatch had a hand - make that a foot - in all three goals, to lead the Vikings past West Valley 4-0 in a non-league soccer match at Coeur d’Alene.

Kovatch opened the scoring with an unassisted goal just 5 minutes into the second half.

He found Brett Fink 6 minutes later to put the Vikings up 2-0. Mark McCall finished Kovatch’s second assist at the 64-minute mark, before Kovatch’s second goal capped the scoring at 71 minutes.

At Mead, Nick Hebb and Ben Baxter each scored goals as the Panthers shut out Ferris 2-0 in a Greater Spokane League match.

Hebb put the Panthers up 1-0 30 minutes into the match after taking a pass from Ken Moulaison. Ben Baxter added an insurance goal from the assist of Jim Morton in the second half.

The win keeps the Panthers perfect at six wins in regulation, no regulation losses, no overtime wins and no overtime losses (18 points), and moves them into sole possession of first place heading into a Monday night showdown with second-place Gonzaga Prep (5-0-0-1, 16 points). The Saxons fell to 0-4-0-1, 1 point.

At North Central, Lewis and Clark goalkeeper James Malone made eight saves, but the one that will not show up on the stat sheet was his biggest.

Malone’s diving save in the third round of sudden-death penalty kicks turned back the Indians 2-1 in a GSL match. His penalty shot gave the Tigers (2-2-3-0, 13 points) an 8-7 lead in the shootout to set up his heroics in goal.

Aaron Sweatt’s penalty-kick goal midway through the second half had given the Tigers a 1-0 lead, but Paul Johnson’s goal off of a Mike Hawley pass knotted the score for the Indians (3-1-1-1, 12 points).

At Shadle Park, the Highlanders (2-2-0-2, 8 points) needed 1 minute to get on the board and went on to cruise past Rogers 6-0.

Jeremy Stuart had two goals and an assist to lead Shadle offensively.

Ryan Vane, Adam Steele and Ben Janosik also scored for the Highlanders, who benefitted from an own goal scored by the Pirates (0-6-0-0, 0 points).

At Cheney, the Blackhawks used a pair of Trevor Harelson goals to down East Valley in a Frontier League match.

Harelson sandwiched his goals around Kanyon Anderson’s strike at 38 minutes, scoring at 28 and 70 minutes.

Rob Just turned back seven shots to earn the save for the Blackhawks, who improved to 5-0 in league play. The Knights fell to 2-1-1.