Cohen Helps Prairie Capture District Title
Legion baseball
Prairie Cardinals pitcher Aaron Cohen is headed for the state American Legion baseball tournament. Most of his friends are not.
Cohen, cut from the Coeur d’Alene/Atlas team during tryouts, found a home with Prairie - a team made up of players from Post Falls, Rathdrum, Spirit Lake, St. Maries and CdA.
Cohen pitched the Cardinals, who had clinched a state berth on Saturday, to the District I championship Sunday afternoon, beating Lewis-Clark, which had eliminated CdA and Cohen’s friends.
Cohen, an unorthodox left-hander, went the distance as Prairie breezed to a 14-5 victory at North Idaho College.
Prairie (36-18) will meet the Area B (Boise) runner-up in its state opener Saturday at Pocatello. Lewis-Clark (31-17) will take on the Area C champion, most likely Idaho Falls.
Earlier Sunday, Lewis-Clark topped CdA 17-12 in the completion of a suspended loser-out game to earn its state berth.
Prairie 14, L-C 5
Cohen was on CdA’s team last summer - a fact that made being cut this year difficult to swallow.
He said he utilized a statement CdA coach Tracy Turrell uses to motivate his players - “Adversity builds character” - to inspire him this summer.
“I guess it was reverse motivation,” Cohen said.
Cohen kept L-C’s fastball-hungry batters off-balance with an assortment of mostly slow, unpredictable pitches. He allowed seven hits, three of which left the ballpark.
“He made a couple of mistakes with the hard balls, but when you’ve got that lead, you just make them put it in play,” Prairie coach Darren Taylor said. “He deserves to go to state. He did a great job all season.”
And the Cardinals certainly gave Cohen a comfortable cushion.
They scored four runs in the top of the first inning and tallied at least once in each of the first six innings for a 12-4 lead.
L-C never threatened.
“It’s great to pitch well against a good team like Lewis-Clark,” Cohen said.
Several Cardinals had productive plate appearances. Bryan Phelps, Nick Ursillo and Jake Adams each had three hits.
The nine-inning contest was played in 2-1/2 hours, the quickest game in the tourney.
“They were tired (L-C), but you’ve still got to get up for the district title game,” Taylor said of L-C’s lack of intensity.”
L-C 17, CdA 12
The game resumed with CdA at bat in the top of the eighth.
The Lumbermen (33-18) managed one more hit as their season ended quietly.
“The team we lost to is a very good ballclub,” Turrell said. “We wish both teams the best of luck at state. We expected to go to state. It was tough to lose a ballgame like that.”