Lewiston Tops Error-Prone Cda

Coeur d’Alene High’s shoddy defense opened the door and Lewiston came barging through - bats first.

The Bengals clubbed CdA 12-6 to capture the State A-1 baseball title on Saturday night at Hawks Memorial Stadium.

CdA lost early leads of 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2 when its defense collapsed. Five of the Vikings’ seven errors factored into all but one Lewiston run. CdA bungled grounders and outfielders over-ran singles, but one of the recurring problems was simply playing catch.

Pitcher Jesse Hoorelbeke and catcher Mike Dorame couldn’t make connections, leading to a combined six wild pitches/ passed balls. And yet in the fifth, when Lewiston was busy scoring five runs to take a 10-5 lead, Dorame stone-walled three potential run-scoring wild pitches.

“The wheels came off the wagon a little bit,” said CdA coach Paul Mather, who found it difficult to be too critical since his club had won six straight prior to Saturday. “You can’t blame any one person, but we didn’t get it done defensively.

“And give them credit. They battled and I’m happy for them because I know they work hard.”

CdA and Lewiston, Inland Empire League rivals, split six games this year but there won’t be a seventh.

Simultaneous with CdA’s defensive woes was Lewiston bunching all 12 of its hits between the third and sixth innings.

Hard-throwing Bengal reliever Lysandro Perez entered in the fourth inning and permitted only a meaningless run in the sixth. Perez fanned seven.

And another critical stat: Lewiston had no errors.

“I’d like to think of ourselves as the best baseball team in the state of Idaho. We’re A-1 champs, doggone it,” said Lewiston coach Tom Grunenfelder.

The victory carried special significance for Grunenfelder - and the town of Lewiston, for that matter - after the death of legendary Bengal coach Dwight Church last July. “I hope I can keep up the tradition in Lewiston that Dwight started,” Grunenfelder said.

CdA (16-12) started quickly. Bruce Coppess ripped Mike Wilson’s first pitch for a double and he later scored on Hoorelbeke’s single. Nick Rook added a two-out, tworun double and the Viks led 3-0 after one inning.

But CdA started frittering away opportunities. In the second, the Viks scored once, but had the bases loaded with just one out. The third saw CdA runners on first and third, but Ben Ziegler was caught stealing after a third strike to Dorame.

“We had a chance to put more pressure on early, but we didn’t do it,” Mather said.

The Bengals’ bottom three batters in the order combined for eight hits, six runs and four RBIs.

Leading the way was No. 9 Chris Kennedy, who had three singles, and No. 7 Adam Gomez.

Momentum firmly shifted sides when Grunenfelder pinch-hit for No. 8 Stacy Brood in the fourth. Brood was sent up to sacrifice bunt, but Hoorelbeke’s wild pitch wiped out that need. Pinch-hitter Marcus Wiggins stepped up with a 1-0 count and smacked a two-run single.

“For some reason almost every decision, every move I made, paid off,” said Grunenfelder.

Lewiston (24-6) has won two of the last three A-1 titles. CdA, meanwhile, is searching for its first.

“We’re coming back here next year,” said first-year coach Mather, who has a bevy of talented underclassmen. Then he held up the second-place trophy and said, “We came a long way. This is our reward for being a hard-working club.”

Elsewhere, Boise (25-4) routed Hillcrest (16-5 for third place. Centennial (16-14) ripped Minico (22-8) 14-4 for the consolation crown.