Cardinals Suffer Two Bitter Losses

It could have been so perfect.

Mark Nelson, a 1995 North Idaho College pitcher who is recovering from cancer treatments, came down from his home in Canada to sit in NIC’s dugout on Friday.

Jeff Anstine and Paul Decelle pitched with savvy and determination for the Cardinals.

Even the weather cooperated.

With the stage set for a happy ending, NIC somehow came away with two impossibly cruel losses, 4-1 and 7-4, to College of Southern Idaho in Region 18 North Division baseball. The teams play a single game today at noon.

“We’re not supposed to win, I guess,” muttered coach Jack Bloxom. “I really don’t have anything else to say.”

He said his piece to his team in a 15-minute postgame address.

“He pretty much told us some of us need to grow up,” said sophomore second baseman Jeremy Mort, “and he’s right.”

Last-place teams like NIC (11-15 overall, 1-7 league) lose games like this. First-place teams like CSI (25-12, 7-1) win ‘em, sometimes with a dugout of sick kids.

“Strep throat has decimated us,” CSI coach Jim Walker said. “We’ve got about eight kids on antibiotics. We don’t even get them up for breakfast.”

They do, however, rise up for the ninth inning.

After Decelle gave up two runs in the first inning of the second game, the NIC pitcher permitted only Brandon Duckworth’s solo homer in the fifth. He departed with a 4-3 lead, courtesy of Jason Bartell’s eighth-inning RBI single.

But the visiting Eagles battered reliever Ryon Packard in the ninth, starting with Ben Florence’s bloop single.

“To be honest, if Benny doesn’t get that lucky flare, we probably go down 1-2-3,” Walker said.

Eventually Marty Caldow’s run-scoring single and Larry Panaro’s two-run single sank the Cards.

Decelle deserved better - and so did Anstine, who pitched the opener. The Coeur d’Alene High grad gave up the ugliest imaginable earned run in the first inning after NIC bungled two potential doubleplay grounders and an outfielder misjudged a flyball.

In the fifth, Anstine picked off Panaro, but in the ensuing run-down, Ryan Novak’s throw hit Panaro in the back. Panaro then scored on Mort’s error.

CSI scored two more unearned runs in the seventh.

Mort, who whacked a second-game home run, summed NIC’s blues this way: “We’re playing not to win. We don’t go up to bat saying, ‘I’m going to kill this ball.’ We’re going up hoping to get a hit.”

Duckworth pitched a complete game in the opener. He was drafted by Toronto last year and offered $70,000 to turn pro, according to Walker. A handful of scouts monitored Duckworth and Mike Young, an impressive lefty who was Southern Idaho’s second-game thrower.

Mort was hoping NIC would perform better for Nelson.

“It was emotional to see him,” Mort said. “He’s such a good guy.”

CSI 4-7, North Idaho 1-4

CSI 100 010 2 - 4 6 2 NIC 100 000 0 - 1 4 4

Duckworth and Forbush; Anstine and Guenter. W-Duckworth 5-2. L-Anstine 2-4.

HITS: CSIDuckworth, Cameron, Starbuck, Panaro, Gonzales, Kimball. NICTarasoff, Wilson, Guenter, Mort. 2B-Duckworth, Tarasoff.

CSI 200 010 004 - 7 10 2 NIC 020 010 010 - 4 10 2

Young, Gallagher (6) and Forbush; Decelle, Packard (9) and Guenter. W-Gallagher 6-3. L-Packard 1-2.

HITS: CSIGillette 2, Starbuck, Duckworth 2, Forbush 2, Florence, Caldow, Panaro. NICGorham 2, Guenter 3, Mort 2, Tarasoff, Bartell, Nelson. 2B-Gillette, Guenter, Gorham. HR- Duckworth (4), Mort (3).

, DataTimes