Lakers drop thriller to Expos at Sapa-Johnsrud tourney
Bonner County Daily Bee | UPDATED 5 years, 3 months AGO
Everett Hannah pitches during the doubleheader against St. Maries last year at War Memorial Field.
(File photo by DYLAN GREENE)
WHITEFISH, Mont. — The class A North Idaho Lakers sit at 1-1 through two days of the Sapa-Johnsrud Memorial Tournament in Whitefish.
On Friday, the Lakers faced off against the Spokane Expos in a tightly-contested game. North Idaho jumped out to a 2-0 advantage over the Expos, but Spokane clawed back to tie the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning.
That score remained intact until the top of the seventh when Koby Barlow scored to give the Lakers a 3-2 lead.
With a victory in sight, Kody MacDonald stepped on the mound in the bottom of the inning looking to earn the save. He entered the game after Everett Hannah gave up a walk to open the inning.
After a double, the Expos had runners on second and third base with no outs, and they didn't waste much time ending it. The next batter singled, which allowed two runs to score and gave Spokane a 4-3 walk-off victory.
Despite the defeat, Hannah was feeling it on the bump. He only gave up three hits and one earned run over six innings while striking out eight.
Mike Riley, Finn Mellander, Mick Koch, Trevor Brackett, Hannah, MacDonald and Barlow all recorded hits in the game.
The Lakers opened the tournament on Thursday against Billings and were locked into another back-and-forth affair.
After falling behind 4-1, the Lakers fought back to tie the game at 5-5 and force extra innings. In the bottom of the seventh, MacDonald and Mellander both hit RBI singles to knot it up.
In the eighth inning, both teams started with a runner on second base. Billings was able to bring in two runs in the top of the inning to take a 7-5 advantage.
With their backs against the wall, the Lakers responded in the bottom of the eighth. Zeke Roop doubled to score Greg Belgarde, Brackett singled to bring in Roop and Hannah hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Brackett and secure an 8-7 walk-off victory for the Lakers.
MacDonald went 3 for 4 against Billings and Barlow had a pair of hits.
The Lakers (13-15) will face the Glacier Twins today at the Whitefish tourney.
North Idaho 110 000 1 — 3 7 1
Spokane 000 020 2 — 4 5 4
Everett Hannah, Kody MacDonald (7) and Trevor Brackett; Spokane battery unavailable.
HITS: NI — Hannah, Riley, MacDonald, Mellander, Koch, Brackett, Barlow. S — unavailable. 2B — Mellander.
Billings 102 001 12 — 7 10 2
North Idaho 000 102 23 — 8 9 1
Billings battery unavailable; Jack Ringer, Avery Bocksch (3), Zeke Roop (6), Mike Riley (8) and Trevor Brackett.
HITS: B — unavailable. NI — MacDonald 3, Barlow 2, Mellander, Koch, Roop, Brackett. 2B — Barlow, MacDonald, Roop, Koch.