T-Wolves charge into state title game

BOISE – It was the kind of offensive outburst Lake City High baseball coach Cory Bridges has been waiting for all season.

Twelve Timberwolves came to the plate in the second inning and nine runs later Lake City was on its way to a 14-4 run-rule shortened victory over Timberline in five innings Friday evening in a State 5A tournament semifinal at Borah High School’s Wigle Field.

Lake City (19-6) will get the opportunity to defend its state title tonight when it faces District III champ Boise (27-2) at 6 PDT.

Boise rallied from a 4-0 deficit to knock off Lewiston 7-5 in eight innings in the other semifinal.

Lewiston (21-2) takes on Timberline (24-4) for third place. Eagle (17-12) and Twin Falls (23-5) play for fourth.

Eagle tripped Madison 7-6 and Twin Falls slipped past Borah 5-4 in loser-out games.

Lake City 14, Timberline 4: Talk about a shift in momentum.

Timberline jumped on LC in the first inning, with a pair of solo home runs to open a 3-0 lead.

After LC went down weakly in the bottom of the inning, it seemed apparent that the T-Wolves would have their work cut out for them to get back in the game.

Similar to last year when against Timberline in the semifinals LC trailed 7-1 before rallying for an 8-7 victory.

LC’s answer this time, though, was expeditious. It came in the second inning.

After a leadoff double by Zach Clanton, Nick Combo popped out. That’s when the hit parade began. LC strung together five straight hits followed by a hit batter and a walk. Trent Bridges, the ninth batter, got a bases-loaded walk to give LC a 4-3 lead.

Then Clanton, batting for the second time in the inning, drilled a towering fly ball to right-center that Timberline’s outfielders couldn’t track down, and Clanton’s triple cleared the bases. Nick Combo then knocked in the ninth and final run of the inning before Collinson hit into an inning-ending double play.

Collinson got a chance at redemption in the fifth inning when he crushed a triple off the wall in left-center to knock in three runs and end the game.

He was nearly speechless afterward.

“It’s just amazing. I don’t know what to tell you,” Collinson said. “It’s amazing to be able to be in this situation – to be able to get our team to go on to the state (title) game. It’s just phenomenal for me.”

Bridges was equally amazed.

“We’ve had spurts, but like (Borah) coach (Jake) Taylor was just saying, he’s never seen nine runs scored so fast in his life,” Bridges said. “They were just missiles. We hit the ball as well as you could hope to hit the ball – ever.”

Timberline coach Larry Price, a Coeur d’Alene High graduate, also couldn’t believe how LC erupted.

“It was just one of those things where we couldn’t stop the fire,” Price said. “It was rough. They kept swinging and getting good pieces of bat on the ball and we couldn’t stop them. The next thing you know we look up and they had nine on the board.”

Boise 7, Lewiston 5: The Braves roughed up the Bengals’ No. 1 pitcher, Brett Watson, for four runs without the benefit of a hit in the sixth inning. Then Boise used a two-run homer in the eighth to hold off Lewiston.

State 4A

At Nampa, Idaho, Lakeland (11-10) scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat Pocatello 7-6 and advance to the consolation final. Lakeland plays Rigby at 10 a.m. today.

State 3A

At Ontario, Ore., St. Maries was eliminated via a 7-2 loss to South Fremont. Cole Schiermeister went 2 for 2 and reached base four times for the Lumberjacks (15-5) and Marc Grubham drove in both of their runs.