Some 10 months later, memories of last year’s rain-affected state 5A softball tournament still linger in the minds of a couple of local softball coaches.

“It still hurts,” Coeur d’Alene coach Darren Taylor said.

“I still kick myself,” Lake City coach Jesse Lenz said.

To review:

The tourney began Friday, May 21 in Idaho Falls. Coeur d’Alene beat Highland of Pocatello 5-1, and was in a scoreless tie with nationally ranked Eagle after four innings, when rain, lightning and darkness suspended play for the day.

Meanwhile, Lake City gave up two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and lost 3-2 to Rocky Mountain of Meridian in the opener. The Timberwolves bounced back later in the day to eliminate Skyline of Idaho Falls 11-2.

THEN THE “fun” began.

The rains continued, and the tourney was moved to Blackfoot in search of more playable fields. But no games were played there that day due to rain. Tournament organizers opted to cancel the losers bracket of the double-elimination tourney, which ended Lake City’s season, and moved the four remaining teams to Mountain View High in Meridian on Sunday for, essentially, two semifinals and a championship game.

There, in the completion of Friday’s suspended game, Eagle beat Coeur d’Alene 1-0 in eight innings, and went on to beat Rocky Mountain — which nearly lost to Lake City in the opener — for the state title.

Coeur d’Alene bounced back with a 7-4 victory over Boise in the third-place game, but — even nearly a year later — the Vikings were left to wonder what might have been, had they gotten a second crack at Eagle.

“They’re so good,” Taylor said. “Getting one crack at ’em was pretty good for us. We played a near-perfect game.

“It still stings. We had our chances. We had first and second in the seventh with two out and didn’t get the hit.”

Coeur d’Alene and Eagle should have been on opposite sides of the bracket. But Coeur d’Alene was upset by Lake City in the Region 1 title game — the Vikings’ first loss of the season. That put Cd’A on the same side of the bracket as Eagle.

“It was our own fault that it wasn’t the title game,” Taylor said. “We put our guard down at (regionals). It was a great season, though.”

AT LEAST Coeur d’Alene got to play on Sunday. Lake City didn’t get a chance to come back through the losers bracket.

“It was frustrating,” Lenz said. “It was definitely something that was hard to get over. Frustrated and bummed, the way it turned out. It was rough, but we hung our cap on winning the (regional) title.”

Lenz lamented the loss in the first round. As it turned out, had Lake City won, the T-Wolves would have played Boise for a chance to face the Eagle-Cd’A winner in the finals, knowing they had already beaten the Vikings.

“You have to show up at state,” Lenz said. “We played 6 1/2 innings — we had to play 7. But I’m still proud of that team.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.