Defending Champ Lewiston Tops Cda

If the Coeur d’Alene High School baseball team is going to fulfill preseason expectations, it’ll have to go through the back door to do so.

Reigning State A-1 champion Lewiston, which graduated nearly all of its key players from last season, continued its quest to return to state by knocking off visiting Coeur d’Alene 8-6 in an A-1 Region I Tournament game Thursday at Church Field.

The victory propels Lewiston (13-9) into the regional championship game Saturday.

In another tournament game Thursday, Post Falls eliminated Sandpoint 6-5 at Brett James Memorial Field.

The tourney was scheduled to conclude at Sandpoint. But with the Bulldogs finished, the regional moves to the alternate site, Lake City High School.

CdA (17-8) will meet Post Falls (11-9) in a loser-out game to open play Saturday at 11 a.m. The winner will take on Lewiston at 1:30 p.m.

Just one team qualifies for state. If Lewiston beats the survivor of the loser-out game, Lewiston goes to state. But if Lewiston loses, another game would be played Monday to determine the region’s state entrant.

Sandpoint finishes the season 10-12.

At Lewiston, CdA seemed to be rolling along with a 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth.

But that’s when things started to unravel for the Vikings. Lewiston scored four runs to take a 5-4 lead.

CdA threatened to tie it in the sixth when Andy Gore led off with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch.

The Viks left Gore stranded. One of CdA’s outs came when Lewiston pitcher Ryan Smith, a left-hander, picked off a runner at first. Smith picked off three runners in the game.

Lewiston closed out CdA in the bottom of the sixth when Zech Manyon hit a three-run homer off reliever Scott Ross.

CdA coach Paul Mather said the game was sloppy at times.

“We didn’t run the bases very well,” Mather said. “It was an odd game. A lot of strange things happened. We definitely had our chances.”

The CdA-Post Falls matchup will feature a rematch of Tuesday’s CdAPF game between Viks pitcher Mark Scates and Trojans pitcher Brad Medlock.

At Post Falls, the Trojans used a solo homer by Ryan Ries and a two-out, run-scoring single by Jake Medlock to take a 2-1 lead through three innings.

But Sandpoint rebounded quickly when Jared Herrington hit a grand slam in the top of the fourth to put the Bulldogs ahead 5-2.

The Trojans rebounded themselves in the bottom of inning to retake the lead at 6-5. Darryl Bechel drove in three runs when a bad-hop single got past Sandpoint’s second baseman.

“If we hang around long enough maybe somebody else will die off,” an elated Post Falls coach John Pettoello said.

Sandpoint coach Dave Martinez thought he’d be able to throw his ace, Mike Lindgren. But Lindgren, coming off two days rest, wasn’t able to go. So Martinez started freshman Jans Wieden, who battled gamely.

“It was a good game. (Jake) Medlock pitched a great game,” said Martinez, who plans to tender his resignation early next week. “It was a tough situation for (Wieden). But you’ll be reading about him for years to come.”

Lakeland and Moscow will meet in the A-2 District I-II championship game.

Both teams prevailed in tourney openers as Lakeland slipped past visiting Orofino and homestanding Moscow tamed St. Maries 10-4.

Lakeland (17-2) and Moscow (13-8) clash at 11 a.m. Saturday when the tourney concludes at Rathdrum. Orofino (12-10) and St. Maries (17-7) meet in a loser-out game following the title contest. The Orofino-St. Maries survivor will take on the Lakeland-Moscow loser at 4 to determine the runner-up berth to state.

Lakeland ace Brett DeBoer earned his first save of the season when he came on in the seventh. DeBoer got a strikeout and then Lakeland picked off an Orofino runner who wandered too far off second base to end the game.

The usually hot-hitting Hawks were held to two hits, both of those by Chris Olson.

“They outhit us; we really didn’t deserve (the win),” Lakeland coach Ken Busch said. “It looks like I’ll have to warm up my arm for batting practice (today). We didn’t force the action like we should have.”

At Moscow, the Bears jumped to 10-3 lead after three innings and coasted to the win.

Moscow put away the game with four runs in the third on five hits and two St. Maries errors.

Softball

Top seeds advanced in the A-1 Region I Tournament.

No. 1-seeded LC (15-4) stopped Post Falls in five innings 12-2, while CdA (14-10) held off pesky Sandpoint 6-5.

The wins earned LC and CdA trips to state, which will be held next weekend in CdA at the Ramsey Field complex. LC and CdA meet Saturday in the regional title game at 11 a.m. at LC.

Three of four teams earn state berths. Post Falls (4-16) takes on Sandpoint (5-9), also at 11, at CdA High in a loser-out game. The winner goes to state as the region’s No. 3 seed.

At LC, the T-Wolves committed three errors in the first inning but quickly shook off the miscues.

“We were nervous for some reason,” LC coach Dwight Wilson said. “We played pretty solid defense after that.”

Laura Tolzmann had two hits and three RBIs and Lindsay Herbert had a two-run homer to lead LC.

At CdA, Natalie Wuest’s two-out, two-run single in the sixth provided the winning cushion for the Viks.

CdA held off Sandpoint in the seventh after the Bulldogs loaded the bases.

, DataTimes