STATE HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL TOURNAMENTS: St. Maries streaking into 2A tourney
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 4 years, 4 months AGO
By JASON ELLIOTT
Sports writer
St. Maries, the last team to qualify for state after beating New Plymouth 9-4 on Monday, returns to the state 2A tournament for the first time since 2016, when the Lumberjacks advanced to the third-place game.
St. Maries (7-11) also advanced to the third-place game in 2015.
St. Maries faces Malad (12-6), the District 5 champion today at Nampa Christian High at 2:30 p.m. PDT. The Lumberjacks, who were the third-seed to the district tournament, have won three of four games.
Senior Dylan Larson leads the team in hitting with a .467 average (21 of 45) with two home runs and 19 runs batted in. He has seven RBIs in the postseason, six coming in a loser-out win over Grangeville in the 2A District 1-2 tournament in Orofino.
Nampa Christian (25-2), winners of last year’s tournament in Pocatello, opens the tournament tonight at 6 against Challis-Mackay (10-9).
Orofino (15-5), the District 1 champion, opens with Melba (15-8) in the first game of the tournament today at 8:30 a.m.
The 2A tournament has predetermined matchups, with the 5A, 4A and 3A tournament opting to use MaxPrep rankings to seed the tournament this year for the first time.
3A: Bonners Ferry (13-11), which upset Intermountain League champion Timberlake in the District 1 championship game, opens with top-seeded Marsh Valley (19-3) today at 9 a.m. at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa.
The Badgers, who won the state title in 2018, are the eighth seed.
This year, MaxPrep rankings were used to seed the tournament
Weiser won last year’s tournament. The Wolverines (20-4), seeded second, open with seventh-seeded Fruitland (14-10).
Homedale (17-10), which beat Kellogg in nine innings in a state play-in game, open with third-seeded Kimberly (20-3).
4A: Sandpoint, champions of the Region 1 tournament, open as the seventh seed, facing defending champion Bishop Kelly (22-4), which also serves as the tournament host.
The Bulldogs (11-11) advanced after sweeping the best-of-3 regional championship series against Moscow last week at Memorial Field.
Sandpoint went 0-2 at state in 2021.
Middleton (24-3) is the top seed and faces Jerome (13-11) in its opener.
5A: Lewiston, the Region 1 champion, opens as the fourth seed against fifth-seeded Owyhee (17-9) today at noon at Wolfe Field in Caldwell.
Timberline (20-4), this year’s third seed, won last year’s tournament and faces Highland (19-10) of Pocatello in today’s late game. Mountain View (21-3) of Meridian is the top seed in the tournament.