Shaken Lumberjacks Earn Split Cda Legion Team Wins Nightcap, Holding Together Amid Turmoil

The Coeur d’Alene American Legion baseball team finally beat District I league-leading West Kootenay.

Most important, though, is the Lumbermen hope they put the loss of their head coach behind them.

West Kootenay of Trail, British Columbia, coupled timely hitting with several mental mistakes by Coeur d’Alene to win the opener 13-8 at McEuen Field.

But the Lumbermen regrouped for a telling 13-6 win the nightcap.

WK defeated CdA 12-2 and 9-0 in league-opening games in early June.

CdA played the doubleheader without coach Paul Mather, who accepted a leave of absence Wednesday after he was charged with sexual abuse of children. Mather had declined to step aside Tuesday.

Assistant Tracy Turrell was named interim coach just before the Lums took the field against West Kootenay.

“(Coming into the games) they (the players) all had some concerns and they’re not sure of themselves,” Turrell said. “Their head coach is gone. They understand we’re under the public eye right now. So we walk out and played real tentative (in the first game). I’m not going to take anything away from (Trail), but in my opinion, we beat ourselves. We talked a lot about that (between games) and made a commitment to ourselves that we were going to play quality baseball.”

WK raised its record to 8-2 in league, 21-6 overall. CdA is 8-4, 20-12.

In the opener, the Lums made a trio of baserunning blunders, among other mistakes, and found themselves trailing 9-1 through six innings.

CdA trimmed the margin to 9-6 with three runs in the bottom of the eighth. But WK took advantage of three CdA errors in the ninth to push its lead to 13-6.

It took a while for Turrell’s pep talk to sink in for the second game.

The Eagles built a 4-0 lead in the top of the second.

But determined CdA fought back with three runs in the bottom of the inning. The Lums added three more in the fourth and blew it open with six on five hits in the sixth.

In the deciding sixth, Nick Rook hit a two-run homer, Scott Moglia had a two-run double and hot-hitting Joe Wagner, who went 6 of 9 in the twinbill, had a run-scoring single.

Turrell said the second game was pivotal for the rest of CdA’s season.

“It brought us back together as a team,” Turrell said. “If anybody is going to handle the situation well it’s the kids. They’ll bounce back, they’re survivors. They’ll bounce back a lot faster than their parents or people in the community.”

Turrell has mixed feelings about taking over.

“I don’t care for the way it’s happened,” Turrell said. “It’s his (Mather’s) team. It’s a shame it’s happened. But we just have to get past it now and just focus on our game. We’re not here to worry about what’s going on outside the field.”

, DataTimes