Post Falls Sweeps Vikings In Baseball

Idaho preps

The four-way tie for second place in the Inland Empire League baseball standings has been cut in half.

Post Falls moved into a secondplace tie with Lake City with a doubleheader sweep of visiting Coeur d’Alene at Brett James Memorial Field Thursday.

The Trojans, behind starting pitcher Ryan Kempton, tripped CdA 4-3 in the opener before holding off the Vikings 14-13 in a wild slugfest in the nightcap.

Post Falls leveled its league record at 6-6 and improved to 7-10 overall while CdA slipped into a last-place tie with Sandpoint at 4-8 (9-10 overall).

In a league doubleheader not reported Wednesday, Lake City moved to 6-6 in league with a 6-4 win in 10 innings at Sandpoint in the first game and a run-rule shortened 10-0 victory in the second game.

In an Intermountain League game Thursday, Lakeland easily handled visiting Bonners Ferry 11-0 in six innings.

At Post Falls, the Trojans had what coach John Pettoello called their finest hitting performance of the season in the second game.

In the opener, Kempton, who got off to a slow start this spring, ran his record to 4-4 when he outdueled CdA pitcher Jeff Anstine. The game took just one hour and 15 minutes.

Ryan Novak, who was 5 for 6 on the day, hit the first of two two-run homers in the first inning of the first game. He duplicated the effort in the same situation in the second game. He finished with five RBIs.

The Trojans hit six home runs in the second game, three coming in their seven-run sixth inning when they went ahead 13-9.

Ryan Ries had two homers in the game for Post Falls.

Todd Hughes got CdA within two at 13-11 in the top of the fifth when he hit a two-run homer, the first by any Viking all season.

But reliever James Ownbey stopped the Viks in the seventh when he struck out Matt Nason looking.

“We hit the ball very well, but you’ve got to give Coeur d’Alene’s kids credit for not quitting in the second game,” Pettoello said.

At Rathdrum, Lakeland moved to 9-0 in league, 15-2 overall with its 13th straight win. BF fell to 2-6, 7-8.

Kurt Reese picked up his first win for Lakeland, striking out seven, allowing just two hits and walking none.

Al Bevacqua led the Hawks at the plate going 3 for 3.

Softball

Inland Empire League-leading Lake City, which suffered just its second league loss the night before at Sandpoint, rebounded Thursday by sweeping visiting Lewiston.

The Timberwolves (12-2 in league, 18-3 overall) topped the Bengals 5-2 and 13-3 in a run-rule shortened second game.

T-Wolf pitcher Kelly Nelson moved her record to 11-1 as she struck out 10 and walked none in the opener. Laura Tolzman provided the offense with a two-run double in the third inning.

In the second game, Tonya McLeod went 3 for 3 with two RBIs and Regan Long had a two-run single for LC.

At Post Falls, the Trojans and visiting Coeur d’Alene split a league twinbill. Post Falls edged the Viks 8-7 in the opener before CdA bounced back for an 18-2 win.

The split leaves CdA and Post Falls tied for second at 6-4. The Viks are 10-6 overall while the Trojans move to 6-9.

In the opener, Post Falls rallied for five runs in the fifth inning when it bunched four singles with four CdA errors. Nikki Downs, Whitney Bixbee, Jennifer Glaser and Tarra Thomson provided the key hits.

CdA opened the second game with eight runs in the first and coasted from there. Amber Orr had two RBI for CdA.

At Rathdrum, Intermountain League-leading Lakeland handed St. Maries its third league loss (and third overall) as the Hawks triumphed 7-4.

Lakeland (8-0, 13-4) scored four runs in the first off four errors. St. Maries (4-3, 10-3) scored single runs in the third and fourth innings but couldn’t get any closer.

Robin Zychek led Lakeland with a two-run single in the first inning.

Lakeland was scheduled to host Bonners Ferry today. But the game has been postponed and no makeup date has been set.