Vikings secure state berth
Just another classic in one of the top rivalries in North Idaho: Coeur d’Alene-Lake City softball.
Jenna DeLong pitched a one-hitter and the Vikings pushed across the only run of the game in the eighth inning on a throwing error to post a 1-0 victory Wednesday in the championship of the 5A Region I Tournament at Coeur d’Alene High.
The top-seeded Vikings (19-6) advance to the state tournament next week against the District 4-5-6 runner-up at Ramsey Park in Coeur d’Alene. No. 2 Lake City (17-9), which defeated No. 3 Lewiston 7-4 earlier Wednesday to advance to the title game, again entertains the Bengals (12-9) at 4 today. That winner faces a play-in game Saturday in Fruitland for the right to go to state.
The surging Vikings have won eight of their last nine, a stretch that started with a victory over Lake City three weeks ago. Coach Larry Bieber thinks his Vikings might be taking on a retro look.
“With all my state championship teams, it’s always been you get beat early and you learn from those losses,” Bieber said. “These kids have learned from those losses.”
The setbacks included two midseason setbacks to Lake City. Since then, Coeur d’Alene has won three straight over the Timberwolves and the latest was certainly the toughest to digest for Lake City.
LC senior pitcher Kellee Jost matched DeLong zero for zero until the eighth. Under the extra-innings tiebreaker rule, the team at bat starts with a runner at second base. In the top of the eighth, LC failed to get down a bunt to advance the runner. After DeLong allowed her only walk of the game, she stabbed a line-drive off the bat of Haley Petersen, but the ball squirted out of her glove. DeLong kept her wits, fired to third base for the force and then recorded her 10th strikeout to end the inning.
“The coaches have been drilling me that I’m a good pitcher, but that I have to field at the same time because I’ve kind of let some balls go by me or bunts go by,” DeLong said. “I’m part of the infield, too, and I have to help them out.”
Jordan Corbey started at second base in the Vikings’ eighth and moved to third on Kylie Chandler’s sacrifice bunt. Jost fielded Jessyca Le’s roller to the mound, looked the runner back at third, but her throw to first sailed high and deflected off Amanda Krier’s glove. Corbey raced home with the winning run.
“Kellee threw a heck of a game,” Timberwolves coach Laura Tolzmann said. “It was one of those games that was going to come down to who gets the one hit or who makes the error. I think Kellee saw the runner and she kind of rushed the throw. We battled, but we just came up short.”
Jost, who worked five innings in the victory over Lewiston, gave up just three hits and didn’t walk a batter. She seemed to get stronger as the innings mounted.
“The last time we played against Kellee we shelled her, but she was just hitting her spots,” Bieber said. “They used to throw us outside all the time, so we worked really hard on hitting that outside pitch. She went inside on us all day, which is smart on their part.”
LC couldn’t solve DeLong’s drop ball.
“They had a hard time hitting it and that’s what I’m looking for,” DeLong said. “If I kept it down, they had to hit it on the ground, so that makes it easier.”
The Timberwolves had one mild threat prior to the eighth. Petersen hit a lead-off single in the sixth and moved to second on a wild pitch. DeLong fanned the next two batters and got a groundout to close the inning.
Lake City 7, Lewiston 4
The Timberwolves took a 5-4 lead in the fifth on Haley Tate’s bases-loaded walk. Alysha Krier, who launched a two-run homer in the sixth, and her sister Amanda combined for four runs, five hits and five RBIs.