Timberwolves, Vikings Advance

A-1 state baseball

The city of Coeur d’Alene’s two high school baseball teams guaranteed themselves an opportunity to play for a trophy with opening-round wins Thursday in the State A-1 Tournament.

A pair of wins tonight and the crosstown rivals will square off in the state championship game.

Lake City coach Cory Bridges said he wouldn’t be surprised if such a scenario transpires, especially after his Timberwolves played championship-level ball in a 10-5 victory over Twin Falls at Les Bois Junior High.

Coeur d’Alene, considered to have the best shot of the two Inland Empire League teams to reach the championship game, took care of business after a strange opening first inning in a 12-9 victory over Centennial at Capital High School.

Lake City (14-10) will take on defending champion Boise (26-2) in a semifinal at 5 tonight at Les Bois. Coeur d’Alene (18-5) will meet Skyline (25-0) of Idaho Falls in the other semifinal at Capital.

In other games Thursday, Boise got past Highland 8-4 and Skyline topped Meridian 5-1.

In loser-out games at both sites, Highland (18-10) meets Twin Falls (22-6) and Centennial (16-13) goes against rival Meridian (24-4).

Lake City 10, Twin Falls 5

First, let’s put the Timberwolves’ victory over Twin Falls in perspective. The Bruins are the only team to defeat both Boise and last year’s state runner-up, Meridian, this season.

The key ingredients to LC’s win were obvious: brilliant pitching in tough situations by junior Jeff Brennan, who went the distance to move his record to 6-1; and airtight defense behind Brennan.

“It’s exhilarating,” Brennan said. “Lake City’s never been here before so it feels pretty good to take us (to victory). If we play like we’re capable of we can (get into the state title game).”

Bridges didn’t have enough fingers to praise all the individual efforts. But he certainly had a few reserved for Brennan.

“He threw some base on balls, he still throws six or so, but he has enough heart and courage to get out of it,” Bridges said. “They (Twin Falls) had some problems throwing strikes - they gave us some breaks - but we had some kids come through with some big hits.”

Trailing 2-1, LC used three straight walks to load the bases in the fourth inning. But Twin Falls escaped the inning unscathed.

And to LC’s credit, it didn’t get down after failing to capitalize in the fourth. The T-Wolves came back in the fifth to take the lead for good with four runs on three hits. Scott Moglia, who had a first-inning homer, added a run-scoring double. Then Twin Falls allowed three walks and hit a batter as LC took control.

Rex Anderson also had two big hits and an RBI in the seventh when LC extended its lead to 10-3.

“Like I told the kids if we get two great (back-to-back) performances we could be in the championship game,” Bridges said. “We guaranteed ourselves three days in Boise. What a fine city!”

Coeur d’Alene 12, Centennial 9

It wasn’t amazing that the Vikings rallied. It’s how the Vikings did it coupled with the fact that they eventually won convincingly.

Before CdA took its first at bats, it trailed 7-0. CdA’s comeback began promptly, too, as the Vikings more than answered Centennial’s first-inning outburst.

And 52 minutes after the game started and the first inning finally came to an end, the Vikings led 10-7.

The rest of the game took just 1 hour and 28 minutes to play.

Consider the first-inning totals:

Both teams combined for 99 pitches (55 by Centennial).

Both teams combined for 17 runs, 11 hits, six walks and three errors.

It was a ballgame within a ballgame.

What magical pep talk did CdA coach Brian Holgate deliver after Centennial shocked the Viks early?

“I just told them to go out there and chip away at it,” Holgate said. “Actually I wanted them to chunk away at it. That was a big hole to climb out of.”

Although CdA starter Mark Scates struggled, he gave Holgate four innings. Then Holgate brought in junior Casey Hoorelbeke, who added an exclamation point to an effort already highlighted by his defense and hitting.

Hoorelbeke (6-2) finished strong, keeping the Patriots off balance with offspeed and a slower-than-usual fastball.

“I knew after the first inning I’d probably get a chance to pitch,” Hoorelbeke said. “And I wanted to pitch. I wanted to go in and end the game for us.”

, DataTimes