Eberlin takes St. Maries back to state

D.J. Eberlin went to state twice as a St. Maries High baseball player.

In his first year as head coach at his alma mater, Eberlin will take the Lumberjacks to state.

Eberlin said that going to state as a head coach will be much more stressful than the times he went as a player.

“I think it’s harder being a head coach than a player,” Eberlin said moments after his top-seeded Intermountain League champion Lumberjacks dusted off Priest River 9-1 in the 3A District I championship game Saturday at Spirit Lake. “I feel more stress about being a coach than being a player.”

St. Maries (16-4) will take on American Falls, a play-in winner, when the state tourney begins Thursday at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Ore.

Joining St. Maries at state will be second-seeded Bonners Ferry (14-6), which had to bounce back and win two games after losing 4-3 to No. 3 Priest River on Friday.

BF stopped No. 5 Kellogg (1-18) 14-1 in five innings before the Badgers handled PR (9-11) 9-1. BF will face District V champ Bear Lake in a state opener.

St. Maries staked sophomore right-hander Dalton Baker (7-0) to an 8-0 lead. That’s all the Lumberjacks needed.

Baker was more effective than erratic, but he had moments when he lacked focus. He struck out 12 while walking five, hitting two batters and allowing five hits.

But he managed to strand 12 Spartans.

“He’s a young pitcher,” Eberlin said. “He’s learning how to compose and spot the ball. You can tell when he kind of gets relaxed with the seven, eight and nine hitter and he walks a lot of guys. Then you get the good hitters up and he spots the ball and gets them out.”

His team’s start pleased Eberlin most. Baker used his bat to give himself a lead in the first inning with a two-run single.

St. Maries batted around in the third, scoring six runs on five relatively soft hits, two of which never made it out of the infield. The hardest-hit ball came on Tucker Baker’s run-scoring opposite-field single.

“We had bad luck at the beginning,” first-year coach and Spartans grad Ryan Bodecker said. “They probably had two or three hard-hit balls the whole game and they put up nine runs. Matt Evans pitched well. He just got a lot of those little Texas Leaguers – a lot of in between hits that we couldn’t get to.”

Eberlin said the win was similar to many this season.

“We got jammed on a guy that was throwing 70 mph, but they fell and that’s how it’s happened all season for us,” Eberlin said. “We get the hits when they’re needed.”

Dalton Baker finished with two hits and three RBIs. His older brother, Tucker, had three hits and an RBI.

“ The Badgers used two solid pitching performances to fight back and earn their state berth.

BF coach Tom Turpin saved his ace for the final game, and junior Ross Patterson (9-2) came up big. Patterson had 11 strikeouts and walked just two.

“We rolled the dice, but I felt like our defense could back up (first-game starting pitcher Josh Gatchell),” Turpin said of his decision to save Patterson for their final showdown with the Spartans. “This team showed a lot of character.”

Gatchell had a two-run single in the first against Kellogg.