Cda Rolls Into Regional Final

The Coeur d’Alene High baseball team didn’t wrap up the A-1 Region I tournament’s lone state berth Thursday.

As far as Matt Brown is concerned, though, the Vikings can all but confirm their state itinerary.

Especially if they get a pitching effort remotely similar to the two-hitter Brown threw Thursday as CdA moved into the championship game with a 7-1 victory over intracity rival Lake City.

The double-elimination tourney continues today when LC (11-15) travels to Lewiston (18-5) for a loser-out game at 4.

LC knocked Lewiston into the losers bracket Tuesday when the T-Wolves pounded out 18 hits in a 12-5 win at Lewiston.

The LC-Lewiston winner returns to CdA (20-5) on Saturday morning at 11. The LC-Lewiston survivor would have to beat the Viks twice to go to state.

Could that happen? Brown paused when asked the question, either searching for a politically correct response or contemplating what his coach, Brian Holgate, would expect him to say.

Moments later, Brown answered from his heart.

“The way we’re hitting the ball right now, I don’t think anybody can beat us two games in a row,” Brown said. “Our intensity is really high right now. We’re swinging really good.”

The win was CdA’s fourth in as many tries against the Timberwolves. Unlike the first three - decided by a combined 45-9 margin - the game Thursday went seven innings.

And it probably should have been closer.

Leading 2-1, CdA scored three runs on six hits in the fourth inning. But Lake City should have gotten out of the inning after just one run.

With two outs, a deep but catchable fly ball fell untouched in front as Coeur d’Alene scored its fourth run. Ryan Holland made the mental mistake hurt worse by following with a run-scoring single.

CdA added two more runs in the fifth when a throwing error on a pickoff attempt at first base was compounded by another throwing error on the play.

Four errors and several wild pitches were too much for LC to overcome.

“Just too many free bases,” LC coach Cory Bridges summed up. “It should have been a 3-1 ballgame.”

Brown (4-1), who struck out seven, including the side in the seventh, was making his first start since not getting out of the first inning against Lewiston on April 28. Although CdA came back to win the game, Lewiston scored seven runs off Brown.

“I was thinking too much that game,” Brown said. “I was trying to go 1-on-1 with everybody and I just needed to throw strikes and throw what the catcher told me to throw. I didn’t think about who was up or anything (Thursday). I just went blank and just threw strikes.”

“He was throwing his fastball, his curveball for strikes,” Bridges said. “That was a huge deciding factor of the game. We were not reacting very well. He has a good curveball and a good fastball, and he ate us up with it.”

Holgate had to mix up his lineup Thursday. Brown wasn’t scheduled to start. It was Blake Whiteman’s turn, but Whiteman had to sit out because of the flu.

And Derek Garcia, who normally starts at shortstop when Brown pitches, was home sick.

“It was a great team effort; we plugged guys in all over the place,” Holgate said.

Holgate was pleased his team didn’t overlook Lake City after the earlier outcomes.

“We could very easily have done that,” Holgate said. “We might have had one of our sharpest games of the year today.”

The game was played in intermittent rain. Had it been a regular-season contest, it probably would have been postponed. School officials and coaches worked all day on the field and several bags of water-absorbent material were applied to make it playable.