Lakeland Wakes Up, Snatches State Berth

The Lakeland High School baseball team needed a late rally to avoid repeating the disappointment of a year ago.

Lakeland was heavily favored to win the A-2 District I-II Tournament title last year before seeing its season abbreviated.

Saturday, seemingly destined again for consolation play and possible elimination, Lakeland rebounded from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the seventh to top Moscow 3-2 and win the district championship at Rathdrum.

With two outs and two runners on, Kevin Bridge hit a 3-2 pitch for a soft single that drove in the winning runs.

Lakeland (18-2 overall) will meet District VI champion Sugar-Salem in the opening round of the state tournament Thursday at Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa. Game time is 9 a.m. (MDT).

St. Maries (19-7) earned the district’s second berth to state by defeating Moscow 14-12 in a wild extra-inning game.

St. Maries will take on District III champion Vallivue Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

Before facing Moscow (13-10) Saturday, St. Maries eliminated Orofino 3-0.

In the title game, Moscow extended its lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth.

Casey Banks broke the ice for Lakeland with a run-scoring double. Brett DeBoer, the winning pitcher, singled to set the stage for Bridge.

“I don’t think I’ve coached a team that was so far down in the sixth inning and rose back up like that,” Lakeland coach Ken Busch said.

The game was a pitchers duel. DeBoer finished with 14 strikeouts. Moscow’s Mike Stoddick had 10.

In the final game, St. Maries fell behind Moscow 4-0. But the Lumberjacks rallied for a 12-7 lead. But the Bears scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings.

Infielders Keith Connolly (Priest River), Ty Konkright (St. Maries), Tony Rinaldi (Moscow), Al Bevacqua (Lakeland); outfielders Ed Driskill (Moscow), J.D. Ragan (St. Maries), Kevin Bridge (Lakeland); catcher, Josh Phelps (Lakeland); and pitchers Brett DeBoer (Lakeland) and Kurt Reese (Lakeland) were named to the All-Intermountain League team.

Soccer

Sandpoint repeated as champions of the North Idaho Cup with a 3-0 win over host Coeur d’Alene.

The Bulldogs (9-5-2) upset the Vikings (11-7-1), who were victorious earlier in the week over pre-tournament favorite Lake City.

Lake City’s Timberwolves (13-2) beat Moscow 2-1 for third place.

The tournament victory will give Sandpoint’s Bulldogs a higher seed in next fall’s state-qualifying matches.

No other details were reported.

Softball

Lake City’s Courtney Zimmerman pitched a one-hitter and contributed an RBI single as the host Timberwolves blanked Coeur d’Alene 4-0 in the A-1 Region I Tournament.

In other games, Sandpoint eliminated Post Falls 12-2 and the Bulldogs bounced Coeur d’Alene 7-5. CdA (14-12) advances to state as the region’s third seed.

Rain interrupted the regional tourney. Lake City (16-4) and Sandpoint (7-9) will meet at 4 p.m. Monday at LC in the championship game to decided the top two seeds to state.

The state tournament will run Thursday through Saturday at CdA’s Ramsey Field.

LC coach Dwight Wilson credited his team’s defense in the win over CdA.

“We played unreal defense,” Wilson said. “We turned three double plays, our first double plays of the year.”

At Moscow, Lakeland downed St. Maries 11-6 in the A-2 District I-II championship game at Ghormley Park.

Earlier in the day, Lakeland (20-2) defeated Priest River 12-0.

Lakeland advances to state, which will be held Thursday through Saturday at Memorial Field in Coeur d’Alene, and will be joined by Moscow (11-10) and St. Maries (10-11). Moscow defeated St. Maries in a seeding game 17-12.

In the title game, Lakeland took advantage of several St. Maries walks to score eight runs in the second and third innings.

In the state tournament’s lone opening game Thursday, St. Maries and Moscow will meet at 5 p.m. at Memorial Field. Lakeland opens Friday against the District III runner-up at 4 p.m.

Golf

St. Maries had four of the top five individuals and cruised to the B District I-II boys’ title at Shoshone Golf Club in Big Creek, near Wallace.

Brett Blackburn’s 76 and Martin Taarnhaj’s 77 led the Lumberjacks to a team score of 317, easily in front of second-place Priest River’s 346.

Lakeland’s Kyle Gorham was the lone non-Lumberjack in the top five. Gorham carded an 80 for Lakeland, which finished third and qualified for state along with St. Maries and Priest River.

Taarnhaj, an exchange student from Switzerland, returned last week from a serious auto accident.

In the girls’ tourney, Priest River (298) posted a 30-shot victory over Bonners Ferry. Both teams advanced to state.

PR’s Abbie Stensland was medalist with a 95.

A-4 track

Kootenai’s Annie Goodson took first place in the 100 and 200 meters as the Warriors cruised to the girls title at the A-4 District I-II meet in Kellogg.

Kootenai had 123 points. Falls Christian, led by Sarah Peterson’s wins in the long and triple jumps, was second at 93.

Goodson timed 13.0 in the 100 and 27.4 in the 200. She won the high jump on Friday. Heather Anderson gave Kootenai a win in the 400 (1:06.4) by edging Highland-Craigmont’s Krisy Richers.

Troy won the boys crown, totaling 111 points. Lakeside was fourth with 55.

Lakeside’s Brendon Nelson swept the jumping events - soaring 19-0-1/2 in the long jump, 5-8 in the high jump and 41-0-3/4 in the triple jump.

Kootenai’s Mark Stephens won the pole vault (10-6).

At the A-3 District I-II meet at Kamiah, Wallace’s Dana Streeter qualified for state in two more events.

Streeter, who won the long jump on Friday, took first in the 100 hurdles (15.5) and second in the 100 (13.1).

Tennis

Like several other state-qualifying events, the A Region I Tournament was halted because of rain, but not before most of the state berths and team title were decided.

Coeur d’Alene finished play with 78 points, well ahead of runner-up Lewiston (38), for the team title.

A boys singles champion, however, won’t be decided until Monday. And the runner-up berth to state in girls singles also must be decided on Monday.

Tim Schultz of Lewiston and Adam Grace of CdA will meet at 11 a.m. Monday at Lake City High in the boys championship match. The winner advances to state, the loser will face the winner of a match between Amador ZuaZua of CdA and Alan Mickelson of Lewiston for the second berth to state.

Lisa Benscheidt of CdA captured girls singles, defeating Janice Northrun of Lewiston 6-2, 6-1.

CdA’s strong play continued in girls doubles where Heather Johnson and Chrissie Pflipsen downed Angie Arthur and Kristen Belnap of Lewiston 6-2, 7-6 (7-2 tiebreaker). Abbey Davis and Leslie Davis of CdA paired to knock off Arther and Belnap for a state berth.

In mixed doubles, the sister-brother combination of Kimi and Chris Towery topped Adam Vore and Emily Wroe of Lewiston 6-4, 6-2 in the title match.

In boys doubles, Kurtis Killgore and Charles Stegner of Lewiston defeated Joe Everson and Jeff Fealko of Lake City 6-1, 6-1. But Everson and Fealko bounced back to top Duffy Smock and Sean McCarthy of CdA 6-0, 6-3.

, DataTimes