Coeur d’Alene tops Lewiston for 5A Region I baseball title

Colin Richards fired a complete-game one-hitter with seven strikeouts to lead the Coeur d’Alene Vikings to a 4-2 victory over the Lewiston Bengals in the 5A Region I baseball championship on Tuesday at Lewiston.

The Vikings qualified for the state tournament. Lewiston will play Post Falls or Lake City on Thursday in a winner-to-state, loser-out game in Lewiston.

3A District I: Ty George’s two-run single keyed a three-run fourth inning and the Timberlake Tigers advanced to state with a 3-1 victory over the Bonners Ferry Badgers in Bonners Ferry.

The Badgers will host Priest River or Kellogg on Thursday in a winner-to-state, loser-out game.

Washington 2B regional: Jeff Davies drove in four runs with a pair of hits and Kenton Lyman had two hits and three RBIs to power the Colfax Bulldogs to an 18-3, five-inning win over the Liberty Lancers in a loser-out game at Colfax. The Bulldogs move on to play DeSales in a loser-out game on Monday. … Trystan Rosman and Brent Rosman made sure the Wilbur-Creston Wildcats would live to play another day. Trystan struck out 10 and combined with Brent to total five hits and four RBIs to propel W-C to an 8-5 win over visiting Northwest Christian in a loser-out game. The Wildcats will play either Kettle Falls or Asotin in a loser-out game on Monday.

Softball

Abby Howard went 3 for 3 with a home run, Kylie Rasmussen got on base all four times with a single, triple and a pair of walks and the Coeur d’Alene Vikings (23-1) cruised to an 8-1 win over the Lake City Timberwolves in the 5A Region 1 title game in CdA. The Vikings advance to the state tournament, which begins May 15 at Post Falls. Lake City advanced to the title game with an 8-1 win over Lewiston.

4A regional: Katie Kastning went 3 for 4 with a homer as host Lakeland defeated Sandpoint 12-1 in five innings at Rathdrum. Sandpoint will play Moscow in a loser-out game on Thursday. The winner must defeat Lakeland twice on Saturday to make state.

3A District I: Jordan Schwartz struck out 10 and helped her cause with a two-run home run to spark the Kellogg Wildcats to a 10-6 win over the Priest River Spartans in a loser-out game at Timberlake High School.

UI’s Means honored

John Means, coach of Idaho’s Big Sky Men’s Golf Championship team, was honored Tuesday as the league’s Coach of the Year.

Means’ Vandals not only won the Big Sky title by a commanding 21 strokes last week, they are ranked 57th by Golf Week and 59th by Golfstat. Idaho averages 283.6 strokes per round with an individual player average of 71.79 per round, which is seventh nationally by Golfstat.

His players say his experience and coaching style are the basis for the honor.

“He has a lot of experience,” said senior Aaron Cockerill, a unanimous first-team all-Big Sky selection and the team’s captain. “Every situation we’re in, he’s been there before. His practices are well structured. He knows what it takes to help his players get better.”

Means is in his fifth season as the Vandals head coach and next week takes them to their first NCAA Regional competition since 2000.

Jorg leaving

Eastern Washington Eagles redshirt junior Frederik Jorg will transfer to the Saint Martin’s University Saints in Lacey, Washington, announced Saint Martin’s new coach Alex Pribble.

The 7-foot-1 German center averaged 2.2 points and 1.1 rebounds in 15 games for Eastern Washington last season.

“Fred is the type of player and person that the entire Saint Martin’s community will embrace,” Pribble said. “He will be a major presence on the floor, in the locker room, and on campus. He is also a fantastic student and will represent our program very well as a student-athlete.”

The Saints finished 6-22 overall last season and 3-15 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.