Lake City Errs In Title Game T-Wolves Lose To Centennial

Fastpitch softball games are usually decided by pitching. Not Centennial’s 5-4 heart-stopping win over Lake City on Saturday in the State A-1 championship game.

It was decided by gloves and throwing arms.

Lake City (25-4) committed nine errors - one of Centennial’s hits was borderline - and yielded four unearned runs. That doesn’t include several Timberwolves wild pitches/passed balls, baserunning blunders and mental miscues.

Centennial (23-5), led by poised 15-year-old freshman pitcher Courtney Todd, wasn’t flawless defensively. The Patriots had five errors, but they executed when the title was on the line.

With two outs in the seventh, Lake City’s April Duthie and Regan Long hit singles. Sandy Norton lined a single to center and pinch-runner Julie Johnson turned third and was waved home by third-base coach Jim Winger.

Patriot center fielder Katie Flower threw a strike to Todd near the pitcher’s mound. Her swift relay throw was just in time to nail Johnson at the plate.

“We took a chance and they made good throws,” dejected LC coach Dwight Wilson said. “You have to do that (send the runner).”

“As many errors as we made, it was amazing we were even in the ballgame. You can’t teach guts, mental toughness or whatever you want to call it, but we sure went in the tank.”

Like Lake City, Coeur d’Alene (14-16) suffered defensive meltdowns in a 4-0 loss to Capital (23-3)- all runs unearned - in the consolation championship.

Nampa (20-6) topped Lewiston (14-18) 5-2 for third place.

Centennial 5, Lake City 4

As painful as the last out was, it was just heaped on top of a mountain of T-Wolves miscues. Such as:

The first inning, when the T-Wolves made errors on three straight infield plays, setting up a four-run Patriots uprising.

The second inning, when Centennial scored the eventual winning run. It started when pitcher Kelly Nelson, who persevered through LC’s defensive lapses, fanned Katrina Nelson, but the pitch was in the dirt and skipped past catcher Duthie, allowing the runner to take first.

After a force out, Flower never broke stride in racing from first to third on a sacrifice bunt. She scored on an error by Tonya McLeod, who finished with six.

The fourth inning, when Kim Budvarson went for Centennial shortstop Kolee Galeazzi’s fake throw and was tagged out near second base. Seconds later, McLeod strayed too far off first and was picked off.

“By far, by FAR, the worst defensive game we’ve played,” Wilson said. “We couldn’t combine five games and play that poorly defensively.”

In fairness, Centennial put loads of pressure on LC’s defense. The speedy Patriots bunt, slap hit, hit and run, and run the bases aggressively.

But, Wilson said, “You have to make defensive plays like those in championship games.”

Lake City matched Centennial’s four-run first. Nelson, putting a capper on a sterling tournament, had the first of her two hits to drive in McLeod, and the Patriots committed two costly errors.

Then came an aggravating stretch for LC as runners were left on the bases as Todd wiggled out of jam after jam.

Budvarson was stranded at third in the second on Nelson’s deep flyout to center. The fifth inning ended with LC runners at second and third and Jenny Owen fanned in the sixth inning with two runners aboard.

“We tried,” Nelson said. “Just a lot of errors.”

“It’s quite an accomplishment what we did this year,” Wilson said, searching for positives. “We lost four games and we were second in state. That’s not all bad.”

Capital 4, Coeur d’Alene 0

CdA couldn’t solve Eagles pitcher Brooks Bower, who will play at North Carolina-Charlotte next year.

The Vikings mustered only four hits to again leave pitcher Kim Sigler a tough-luck loser. Sigler pitched well in CdA’s 2-1 loss to Nampa on Thursday.

Vikings coach Larry Bieber officially protested the game because he felt Bower used an illegal pitching technique called a “crow hop,” lifting and replanting the pivot foot. Such a technique usually helps a pitcher throw harder.

“Everybody down here has been doing it and they don’t call it,” Bieber said. He admitted the protest had little chance of succeeding.

Jenny Lee had two of CdA’s four hits.