Idaho State baseball: Hitting has made difference for Lake City

Lake City third-year baseball coach Travis Georgius stopped short of saying the Timberwolves were ahead of the rebuilding schedule when they qualified for state.

After all, Lake City played in games the last two years that decided state berths.

Georgius nonetheless is elated that the T-Wolves won three straight loser-out games to advance to the 5A State tournament, which begins today at Hawks Memorial Stadium in Boise. LC (18-10) faces District III runner-up Capital (14-12) at 9 PDT.

“Coming into the year, we returned the core of our defense,” Georgius said. “Defense kept us close last year.”

The big question mark was hitting.

“We didn’t hit at all last year,” Georgius said.

He thought the pitching would prove to be solid and he was right. Right-handers Jordan Ross (4-1) and Sam Slusser (2-3) and lefty Dominic Conigliaro have carried the load. Georgius will start either Ross or Conigliaro today.

Ross, who plays shortstop when he’s not pitching, leads in hitting (.485), followed by Conigliaro (.429) and Cody Garza (.414).

“We’ve been putting some hits together and scoring runs the last half of the season,” Georgius said.

After losing 7-6 to Coeur d’Alene in a regional opener, LC eliminated Post Falls 4-3 and then used a six-run outburst in the top of the seventh inning to knock off CdA 10-5 to advance to a play-in game last Saturday against Vallivue at Lewiston. The T-Wolves won handily 9-1.

It’s the first trip to state for LC since 2008 when it finished runner-up with a nucleus of standouts from a state-title team the year before.

“This is big for the kids,” Georgius said. “The attitude, the mentality shift from my first year to this year, is night and day. We had to change a losing culture. If you’d asked the seniors two years ago if this was possibly they probably wouldn’t have thought so.”

Regional champ Lewiston (21-5) opens against Meridian (16-12).

Unbeaten Rocky Mountain (27-0) is heavily favored. LC played Rocky twice in mid-March in a mini tournament at Lewiston. The T-Wolves lost twice, 5-0 and 6-3, but Georgius said his team was competitive.

That’s all he’s asking for this weekend.

“We know we haven’t been there in a while but we’ve played some good competition to get there,” Georgius said. “We don’t need a bunch of extra motivation. If we keep doing what we’ve been doing we’ll compete.”

3A: Bonners Ferry (18-7) and Timberlake (14-9) will represent the Intermountain League at state, beginning today at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario, Oregon.

Bonners Ferry opens against Marsh Valley at 9 and Timberlake faces Snake River at 3.

2A: St. Maries (12-5) earned a state berth by defeating Orofino 14-9 in the District I-II final.

The Lumberjacks take on Melba (14-10) today at 9 when the tourney begins at Rodeo Park in Nampa.