Cda Sweeps Post Falls

Any other year, Coeur d’Alene High baseball coach Brian Holgate probably would have had no complaints after watching his team sweep an Inland Empire League doubleheader with 25 combined runs on 21 hits.

Holgate wasn’t satisfied and he doesn’t want his team to be content, either, following CdA’s 11-1 and 14-8 victories over Post Falls at Brett James Memorial Field.

League-leading CdA (8-3 overall, 5-0 league) is eying nothing less than a state championship. And Holgate reminded his team that its overall performance Tuesday was still well short of a state-title level.

“We didn’t play as well as we have in the second game; we didn’t have some quality at-bats,” Holgate said. “We just talked about having quality at-bats every time up. You’ve got to hit strikes and you’ve got to hit the ball hard. We have to get better, get sharper.”

Holgate was pleased with his No. 3 and No. 4 pitchers. Left-handed sophomore Blake Whiteman (2-0) tossed a two-hitter in the run-rule abbreviated first game and junior Robert Green picked up the win with five solid innings in the second after suffering a sore elbow in an earlier start.

“We knew we’d have some deep pitching,” Holgate said.

Kirk Gosch continued his hot hitting, going 5 for 8 with four home runs, three in the first game. He also had eight RBIs.

In a sweep Saturday at Lewiston, Gosch had seven hits, including his first two homers of the season, and drove in nine runs.

In the opener Tuesday, CdA pushed its lead to 11-0 in the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Holland and a run-scoring single from Green. The game ended because of the 10-run rule in the bottom of the inning when the last-place Trojans (5-6, 1-5) managed just one run.

It appeared CdA also would force the second contest to be shortened. The Viks led 10-3 through five innings, but Post Falls scored five runs in the sixth to make it 10-8.

CdA answered in the seventh, sending 10 players to the plate. The Viks scored four runs, capped by Gosch’s fourth homer of the day, a two-run shot.

“We have to get better to win this league,” Holgate said. “We know the teams down south are quality teams. If we just win the league by being average, we’re not going to win a state championship.”

Win or lose, Post Falls coach John Pettoello wants his team to not shortchange itself at the plate and on the pitching mound.

“We’re very timid and part of baseball is being aggressive,” Pettoello said. “We’ve got to be more aggressive. At least in the second game, we didn’t give up and tried to make a game of it. But we have to give ourselves a chance by throwing strikes. You can’t walk as many as we did against a very good team, a good-hitting team like Coeur d’Alene.”

Also in the IEL, Sandpoint salvaged a split with visiting Lake City.

The Timberwolves (6-6, 3-2) won the opener 10-6 and Sandpoint (5-5, 2-3) rebounded for a 9-4 win.

No details were reported.

Justin Anderson’s two-run triple in the fifth led to a 6-3 lead and visiting Bonners Ferry (6-4, 3-2 Intermountain League) defeated Lakeland 10-5 at Rathdrum.

Colin Gause added a two-run single in the third and an RBI single in the sixth as the Badgers closed within percentage points of first-place Timberlake (2-1). Jesse Rogstad had a two-run homer in the fifth for the Hawks (7-5, 2-3).

Also in the IML, reliever Lucas Blaine worked out of a no-out, bases-loaded jam in the seventh to preserve Priest River’s 2-0 win over visiting St. Maries (6-5, 2-2), the first time the Spartans have defeated PR in five years.

Blaine struck out the final two batters. Justin Kershaw had an RBI double in the second for the Spartans (4-3, 2-3).

Craig Craviotto was 3 for 3 with three RBIs, giving him 17 for the season, and Timberlake (7-1) edged Wallace 16-15 in a non-league to win the first home game in school history.

Adam Rouse was 4 for 5 for the Tigers. Wallace (0-9) was thwarted after scoring seven runs in its half of the seventh.

Softball

Cassandra Vig finished 5 for 5 for the day, with four runs and two RBIs, and Coeur d’Alene (11-2, 5-0) swept visiting Post Falls 4-2, 15-5 in the Inland Empire League.

Blake Hoorelbeke (9-1) struck out nine to outduel Becca Reed in the opener. Reed struck out seven but was stung by Dana Larson’s two RBIs.

Kari Lenz’s two-run single in the second put the Trojans (0-6, 0-4) in a hole.

Also in the IEL, Bobbi Darretta struck out 10 as Lake City (7-3, 4-0) defeated visiting Sandpoint 7-2 to stay close to CdA in the standings.

Ingrid Lochelt had four RBIs for the Timberwolves. Sandpoint is 1-4, 0-1.

CdA plays at Lake City April 22.

Coleen Nave (1-0) struck out eight of the 11 batters she faced and Lakeland (9-2, 5-0) defeated visiting Bonners Ferry 12-0 in a three-inning Intermountain League game.

The Hawks’ Teea Stutheit had a two-run single in the third. The Badgers (0-7, 0-5) walked 12 batters.

Both teams thought the score was 15-0 when play was halted. When the error was discovered, the Badgers chose not to continue play.

Second-place St. Maries (7-4, 3-1) jumped to a 9-0 lead and Nikki Gibson (4-2) allowed no earned runs during a 17-6 win at Priest River (3-3, 2-3).

Kristen Duke of the Lumberjacks had three runs, and she and Tiffany Holdahl had two RBIs apiece.

Washington boys soccer

Keoni Dang had one goal and two assists to guide a 4-0 start and visiting Cheney (3-5) defeated Clarkston 8-0 in a Frontier League opener.

Cheney broke open a 2-0 match with three goals in the first 19 minutes of the second half. The Bantams are 0-5-1.

In the other FL opener, Nikko Gibson snapped a 1-all tie with consecutive goals and visiting East Valley (3-1-4) defeated West Valley 4-1.

Tony Wacenske scored at 13:45 for WV (3-4-1).

Mike Chappel scored to the lower left corner after a one-on-one with the goalkeeper and Medical Lake (3-5) defeated visiting Colville 1-0 in the Great Northern League.

Chappel took a throw-in from Aaron Gomez on the winning play, at 65 minutes. Colville is 2-6.

Also in the GNL, Jake Moug totaled three goals and one assist to lead first-place Riverside (7-0) to a 7-0 win at Lakeside (0-9) of Nine Mile Falls.