Vikings roll on to state again
MARK NELKE | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years, 8 months AGO
Mark Nelke covers high school and North Idaho College sports, University of Idaho football and other local/regional sports as a writer, photographer, paginator and editor at the Coeur d’Alene Press. He has been at The Press since 1998 and sports editor since 2002. Before that, Mark was the one-man sports staff for 16 years at the Bonner County Daily Bee in Sandpoint. Earlier, he was sports editor for student newspapers at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Mark enjoys the NCAA men's basketball tournament and wiener dogs — and not necessarily in that order. | May 7, 2014 9:00 PM
COEUR d'ALENE - Here's another example of the depth of the Coeur d'Alene High baseball team, which won its fourth straight 5A Region 1 title on Tuesday:
The Vikings lost speedy leadoff hitter Alec Barrowcliff early in the season to a season-ending knee injury.
Enter junior Gibson Green, who before that was hitting anywhere from sixth to ninth to second in the lineup.
On Tuesday, Green went 3 for 4 with a home run and two RBIs, and top-seeded Coeur d'Alene rolled past visiting Lake City 9-0 in the regional title game at Ted Page Field.
"I was ready for it," Green said of the move to the leadoff spot. "I've hit leadoff before. I just have one job - to get on base. I try to do as best I can."
Coeur d'Alene (20-4), last year's state runners-up, advance to state May 15-17 at Memorial Stadium in Boise. The Vikings will open the tournament next Thursday at 9 a.m. PDT vs. Capital (17-5) of Boise, the second-place team from District 3. No. 3 seed Lake City (12-12) will travel to No. 2 seed Lewiston (15-9) on Thursday at 4 p.m. for Region 1's second berth to state.
Lewiston eliminated No. 4 seed Post Falls (11-13) on Tuesday with a 9-8 victory at home.
Coeur d'Alene 9, Lake City 0: For most of the season, freshman Reggie Nault has been playing catcher on the Viking junior varsity squad. They wanted him to get his reps - the Vikings will lose their two varsity catchers from this year - not knowing how much playing time he would get on the varsity this year.
He got called up to the varsity recently, and went 3 for 4 in his first varsity start last week vs. Lake City.
On Tuesday, starting in right field and batting eighth, the lefty hitting Nault went 3 for 4 again, and his two-run triple to right field started Coeur d'Alene on a five-run fourth inning.
"He just keeps getting knocks," Rook said. "We certainly see the skill set; he plays above his age in terms of, he feels comfortable within the game. We knew he had skill, we just wanted him to play and get a ton of at-bats down at the JV, and pull him up later in the year."
In the fourth, Green drove in a run with a single, and Michael Hicks added a two-run double to left-center field.
"Obviously proud of the kids," Rook said. "The kids continue to buy into what we're doing, and the team concepts. We played well today, got some knocks when we needed 'em, and stranded some guys out there when we needed to defensively."
Green's homer was Coeur d'Alene's 26th of the season, breaking the school record of 25, set by the 2001 squad.
Colby Kennedy, Logan Brastrup, Elliot Sparks and Nick Nyquist teamed to scatter six hits in the shutout. But it wasn't like Lake City didn't have its chances. The Timberwolves left 10 on bases, including leading the sacks full in the third.
"It's kind of been our situation all year," Lake City coach Travis Georgius said. "We've struggled with the bats, but our pitching has normally kept us in it. Today, they hit the ball, we made some errors, and didn't score any runs."
Dominic Conigliaro had a pair of hits for the T-Wolves.
Lake City 000 000 0 - 0 6 4
Coeur d'Alene 050 301 x - 9 12 2
Ian Zwink, Jordan Ross (3) and Reilly Cherry; Colby Kennedy, Logan Brastrup (5), Elliot Sparks (6), Nick Nyquist (7) and Kolby DeHaas. W - Kennedy (3-0). L - Zwink.
HITS: LC - Ross, Garza, Conigliaro 2, Cherry, Slusser. Cd'A - Green 3, Nyquist 3, Sutton, Hicks, Montee, Nault 3. 2B - Nyquist, Hicks. 3B - Nault. HR - Green (2).
Lewiston 9, Post Falls 8:Trystan Valente hit a two-run double in the fourth inning and Jacob Koski had a two-run triple in the fifth inning for the Trojans, who came up short at Church Field.
“I’m real proud of the kids,” Post Falls coach Dustin Frank said. “They fought until the end. There was a lot of adversity down there that was out of our control. We got hit in the mouth a couple times, but got up and swung back. I really thought we deserved to win, but we just didn’t execute at the right times.”
Wyatt Setian went 2 for 3 with an RBI in the fifth for Post Falls.
Post Falls 010 430 0 — 8 13 1
Lewiston 003 600 x — 9 12 0
Joey Pfennigs, Dalton Lozier (4) and Treavor Hammell; Jake Munoz, Kade Woods (5) and Jake Ralstin.
HITS: PF — Pfennigs 2, Gomer, Hunt 3, Koski 3, Valente 2, Setian. Lew — Munoz 3, Gay, Ralstin 3, Ewing, Shandrick 2, Picard, Scott. 2B — Valente, Ralstin. 3B — Koski.
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“The whole process has been completely amazing,” said Nathan Williams, now in his fourth season as the Badgers boys basketball coach. “And the parents … it’s an hour and a half to Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, when we’d play an AAU game, and an hour and a half back, and there were so many times there was 6, 8 inches of snow. And we’ve got a game at 8 a.m. They’d always schedule us at 8 a.m., coming from Bonners. So we’re waking up at 5 … it was crazy. But the commitment from the parents and the kids has been amazing.”