Prairie Hangs On For Victory Late-Inning Heroics Boost Post Falls Team In Tournament

Rain wreaked havoc on the Prairie Cardinals Monday in the Idaho Class AA State American Legion baseball tournament at Lewiston.

Rain delayed the start of the game nearly eight hours and then dampened the parade of an eight-run lead, requiring late-game heroics to salvage the win for the Post Falls team.

Holding a one-run lead with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, left-hander Brett DeBoer came on in relief to preserve Prairie’s 10-7 win over Twin Falls in a do-or-die situation for the Cardinals.

With its second loss of the tournament, Twin Falls, 22-28, was sent packing.

Prairie, 2-1 in the tournament and 32-27 overall, advances to meet Pocatello, 35-20, today at 12:30 p.m. for a chance at the championship game Wednesday, time to be announced.

“We’re just happy to still be around,” said Prairie coach Darren Taylor. “It wouldn’t be a state tournament if it was easy.”

The Cardinals made it look easy the first four innings, though. But then they were denied just as easily the next four innings as the Twin Falls bats came alive. The Cowboys made the score 8-3 on a 3-run homer by Luke Mickelson in the fourth. Three Cowboy hits and two Cardinal errors made it 8-7 in the sixth.

The lead was looking smaller and smaller when Twin Falls loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth on a double by Greg Schelhaas and walks to Mark Scofield and Mickelson. In came DeBoer, who pitched Prairie to its opening tournament win Saturday.

“My concern was to go out there and throw strikes and keep the ball down,” he said.

DeBoer salvaged the inning with a pop-up, and he then followed by striking out the side in the ninth.

“I was on,” DeBoer said.

Prairie added two runs in the top of the ninth with two outs after being stifled since the fifth inning by Isaiah Day’s relief pitching for the Cowboys.

The Cardinals started hard and heavy, just like the morning rain that curtailed the four tournament games to two. Al Bevacqua led off with a walk, which was followed by four singles, a double and three runs against starting Twin Falls pitcher Relvy Salinas.

Two more Prairie runs came in the third on a walk, back-to-back doubles by Joel Gorham and Ryan Ries and a balk. A hit, two walks, a passed ball and a Twin Falls error resulted in three more Prairie runs in the fourth.

Baserunning errors plagued Prair ie early as three baserunners were picked off third, once with the bases loaded.

“I think we could’ve had four or five more runs in those first three innings,” Taylor said.

Twin Falls coach Don Hornback said Prairie’s early lead hurt, but he was pleased with the comeback.

“We didn’t quite come up with the key hit when we needed it,” he said.

Taylor said, “We were glad to put them out. They put us out of the state tournament last year.”

Prairie 10, Twin Falls 7

Prairie 302 300 002 -10 13 4

Twin Falls 000 304 000 - 7 10 1

Novak, Gorham, DeBoer and Ries; Salinas, Bunn, Day and Hyde. W - Novak; L - Salinas.

HITS: Prairie - Bridge, Phelps (2B), Novak 2, Gorham 2 (2B), Ries 2 (2B), Ownbey 2, DeBoer and Medlock 2. Twin Falls - Salinas, Schelhaas 3 (2B), Scofield, Heyer 3 (2B, 2B), Mickelson (HR) and Hyde.