Upstart Post Falls to play for state title

BOISE – The Post Falls High baseball team moved within one win of what surely could be among the most surprising state championships in Idaho history Friday night.

Senior pitcher Cody Brubaker set a school record with 16 strikeouts in his second appearance of the season, and center fielder Dan Hamilton ripped a solo homer in the top of the ninth inning for a 5-4 victory over Caldwell. The Trojans (17-10) will face Minico at 3 p.m. PDT today for the 4A title.

Minico beat Bishop Kelly 3-2 in nine innings in the other semifinal. The Trojans hadn’t won a state tournament game before this year. “Never,” Brubaker said of whether the Trojans expected to reach the final.

“Oh, it feels awesome.”

This team was a huge underdog even before ace pitcher and key hitter Brandon Haas suffered broken facial bones when a thrown ball hit him Thursday night.

Haas went to Coeur d’Alene for surgery, coach Mick Zeller said. Haas was scheduled to start on the mound Friday, so Zeller scrambled to come up with a Plan B.

He decided on Brubaker, who didn’t pitch this season because of a tendon injury in his pitching elbow. He threw 36 pitches in two innings in the regular-season finale, and that was it.

Zeller estimated Brubaker was at 80-85 percent going into Friday’s game, but says he underestimated Brubaker.

“I told him, ‘We’ll go as long as your arm lasts. You let me know,’” Zeller said. “He kept saying, ‘It feels good.’ “

In fact, Brubaker got better as the game wore on.

He fell behind 3-1 in the first three innings with five walks and a hit batter.

Starting with a man on and no outs in the fourth, he retired nine straight — six by strikeout — and fanned the side in the sixth.

“He’s getting stronger and stronger, so I’m thinking he’s not lying to me,” Zeller said.

The Trojans pulled even in the top of the fifth on a two-run homer by Matt Rowland. It was his second dinger of the year.

They took the lead in the seventh. Brubaker walked, advanced to second on a passed ball, stole third and scored on Hamilton’s single.

The Cougars, however, didn’t flinch.

Korey Yost led off the bottom of the seventh with a line-drive triple to center field. He scored on a wild pitch.

The Cougars’ rally continued with a walk and a single to set up runners at the corners with two outs. Tommy Sessions ripped the ball toward first, but Brandon Parker knocked it down and touched the bag for the third out.

“I thought the game was over right there,” Brubaker said. Brubaker led off the ninth with a single he could have turned into a double, but got stranded between first and second and thrown out. Hamilton made sure the mistake wouldn’t matter with a bomb to right field — his second homer of the year.

Brubaker struck out the first two batters in the ninth, walked Cody Jensen and induced a harmless fly ball from Kent Bradshaw.