Trojans Sweep Lake City To Claim Third

The Post Falls High School baseball team Saturday played its way into the Region I Tournament and out of a possible loser-out playoff.

Or at least it thought so. More on that later.

The Trojans concluded regular-season play with a pair of convincing wins over Lake City, 12-1 and 14-3, in Inland Empire League games at LC stopped after five innings by the 10-run rule.

Post Falls (10-8 overall, 7-7 in league) leapfrogged past Sandpoint (9-10, 5-6) into third place in the final standings.

Sandpoint was scheduled to play league champion Lewiston (11-9, 9-4) Saturday, but the doubleheader was rained out. Lewiston was ahead 10-2 in the third inning of the opener at Sandpoint when the doubleheader was canceled.

Sandpoint will turn around on Monday and play host to Lake City (5-15, 3-11) in the loser-out game to decide the fourth and final seed to the double-elimination regional tourney. The game begins at 4 p.m.

The winner will travel to top seed Lewiston on Tuesday in the first round of regionals. Post Falls, meanwhile, will make the short trek to No. 2 Coeur d’Alene (16-7, 10-6). Both games will begin at 4 p.m.

Tuesday’s winners will meet Thursday at the site of the highest seed, while Tuesday’s losers will play in a loser-out game the same day at the highest seed among the losers. Play continues Saturday with the regional championship. Just one team advances to the state tournament, which will be held the following weekend in Boise.

Going into Saturday’s final games, Lewiston needed just a split to secure the league title and top regional seed. Had Sandpoint swept Lewiston, Coeur d’Alene would have jumped into first place and Sandpoint would have finished third based on winning percentage.

Regardless of the possible scenarios, Post Falls coach John Pettoello had determined to go with his top two pitchers Saturday - the Medlock cousins.

And the Medlocks locked up the Timberwolves.

Brad Medlock (4-5) threw a no-hitter in the opener, while Jake Medlock (6-1) limited LC to five hits in the second game.

“We took a charging attitude into the (doubleheader Saturday),” Pettoello said. “I wasn’t even thinking about saving them for next week. The nice thing is they both recuperate well. And they only threw five innings.”

Pettoello sensed his team was pumped up from the first pitch.

“It’s prom tonight and they were excited,” Pettoello said.

The Trojans smacked 12 doubles in the twinbill.

It was a measure of revenge for Post Falls, too.

The Trojans opened league with two losses to LC.

“Lake City hurt us earlier in the season,” Pettoello said. “We talked about eventually working our way back. And we did.”

Mike McKeown led the Trojans offensively as he collected five hits in the doubleheader including four RBI in the second game. He’s gone 10 of 12 in the Trojans’ two final doubleheaders.

In a late development Saturday evening, Sandpoint and Post Falls school officials were looking into a possible violation of a rule involving a Trojans player. A Post Falls player was ejected from a junior varsity doubleheader between the schools on Thursday.

It is believed that a player must sit out one game after an ejection. In this case, the player ejected played in the first game of Post Falls’ doubleheader Saturday.

If a violation is ruled to have occured, Post Falls would be forced to forfeit a game. Thus, Sandpoint would leap past Post Falls into third and the Trojans would play in Monday’s loser-out game.

No ruling had been made at press time. District I baseball commissioner Dave Corbeill could not be reached late Saturday.

St. Maries had its hands full with Priest River before sweeping the visiting Spartans 13-12, 12-4 in a final Intermountain League doubleheader.

St. Maries (16-6, 7-4) moved into second place, ahead of Moscow (10-8, 5-4). A doubleheader between Moscow and Bonners Ferry at Bonners Ferry on Saturday was rained out.

But school officials were scrambling to arrange a doubleheader Monday between the schools at Lakeland. Moscow wants to play the doubleheader because two wins would give the Bears the No. 2 seed into next week’s district tournament. Moscow won two of three games against St. Maries.

The Lumberjacks rallied from three runs down in the seventh inning in the opener to beat Priest River. With two outs, St. Maries loaded the bases. That set the table for Ty Konkright who hit his second grand slam of the week to lift the Lumberjacks.

Konkright finished with three hits and seven RBIs. Twelve Lumberjacks had at least one hit.

“It’s nice to see the entire lineup actually contributing,” St. Maries coach Jeff Andersen said.

Track

North Idaho was represented by two athletes - Post Falls’ Austin Lee and Josh Mort - at the Strandberg Relays at Central Valley High School.

And they fared well, particularly Lee. The junior weight specialist took first in shot with a personal-best toss of 57 feet, 5 inches. His previous best this season was 54-10.

“Realistically he’s just about where Ian (Waltz) was as a junior,” Post Falls coach Wade Quesnell said.

Mort took third in the 100 meters in a time of 11.1.

In the annual North Star League meet at Lakeland High School’s Corbit Field, Lakeside’s boys and Falls Christian’s girls won team titles respectively.

Lakeside’s boys posted 84 points to top Kootenai (75) and Falls Christian (74). FCA’s and Kootenai’s girls battled down to the wire before FCA finished with 106 to Kootenai’s 100.

Brendon Nelson was a four-event winner for Lakeside. He took first in the 300 hurdles (44.7) and swept the jumps (high, 5-8; long, 20-1; and triple, 38-0).

FCA’s girls took three of four relays. The Eagles prevailed in the 400 (54.5), 800 (1:56.5) and 1,600 (4:51.8).

Individual standouts among the girls included Kootenai’s Annie Goodson and FCA’s Sarah Peterson.

Goodson recorded firsts in the 100 (13.1), 200 (27.1) and high jump (5-2). Peterson was victorious in the long jump (16-1) and triple jump (35-2, tops in North Idaho).

Softball

In a doubleheader that had no bearing on anything, Lakeland swept Post Falls 14-3, 13-1 in non-league games at Quad Park.

Both games were shortened by the 10-run rule.

Angie Tweedy led Lakeland in the second game by going 4 for 4, including a two-run homer.

Lakeland finishes regular-season play at 18-2 overall. Post Falls slipped to 3-15.

Both teams begin postseason play next week.

Boys soccer

The top seeds were uprooted again.

In district action, No. 4 Cheney ended No. 1 EV’s season with a 4-3 shootout victory, and No. 3 Deer Park/Riverside dumped No. 2 West Valley 2-1 in sudden death.

It’s the second consecutive year the top seeds bowed out.

At EV, Cheney received goals from Nick Reynolds, Nathan Gosse and Ryan Waller.

The match went into overtime when the Knights’ Tory Swenson tied the score at 3 with a goal at the 79-minute mark.

At WV, DP/R won the sudden death, 6-5, after a 4-4 shootout. WV outshot DP/R 28-14.

There was no scoring until the second half, when DP/R’s Seth McKay recorded a goal at the 53-minute mark. WV’s Shaun Nogle tied it at 1 a minute later.

DP/R will host Cheney on Tuesday at Riverside, tentatively at 5 p.m. The winner advances to state.

Softball

Colville swept visiting Riverside 7-2, 12-1.

In the second game, Colville’s Tarrah Brown threw her fifth no-hitter of the season and Heather Brown rapped three hits, including a two-run homer.

At EV, the Knights swept Clarkston 7-0, 7-0.

EV’s Rebecca Triplett struck out 11 and allowed one hit. In the second game, Tricia Stookey struck out five during a three-hitter.

On Friday, WV wrapped up the league title with a 17-2, 9-2 sweep of host Cheney. The Eagles’ Jennifer Robinson had five hits on the day.

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