THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Idaho baseball’s new idea a good one, but needs tweaking

The IHSAA called them state baseball Play-in Series. 

Others called them Super Regionals — a much snazzier name, though not entirely accurate. 

Whatever you call them, they were pretty much a hit — a state-tournament feel, something not seen in high school baseball in North Idaho. 

Like we said, pretty much a hit. 

Except for one thing — the toll it took on pitching staffs by having to play so many games in a two-day period. 

THREE TEAMS met last Friday and Saturday at Lake City High — the Timberwolves, who earned the right to host by winning the 6A District 1 tournament the week before, along with Coeur d’Alene and Highland of Pocatello, who earned at-large berths based on strong MaxPreps rankings. 

Highland beat Lake City in the first game Friday, then lost to Coeur d’Alene in the second game. 

The Rams could have played three more games on Saturday, but lost in the first one to Lake City — largely after running out of pitching. 

Lake City had more pitching available for the rematch with Highland, so was in better shape there, despite losing to the Rams in the first round. 

“It could work out that way OK,” Lake City coach Mike Criswell said after Friday’s first game. 

"The format’s set up really weird,” said Highland coach Christian Colonel, who played at American Falls High, College of Southern Idaho and Texas Tech, then played nine seasons in the Colorado Rockies organization. “Obviously if we’d won we would have been set up pretty good, but now that we’ve lost (to Coeur d’Alene) ... we just went through our (No.) 1 and 2 pitchers, and Lake City went through its 1 or 2 pitcher, and they’ve got whatever’s left. It’s a weird little setup that we’ve got to fine-tune for next year, I think.” 

Lake City wound up playing three games on Saturday, four for the weekend, beating Coeur d’Alene before losing a one-run tilt to the Vikings in the winner-take-all championship game.  

“This format ... somebody should have played Thursday night, and that could have alleviated a little of this,” Criswell said Saturday evening, after his team’s third game of the day. “Or maybe the district champ gets a bye ... I don’t know. It’s brutal, but oh, well ... It’s the first time, you’ve got to iron some of those things out.

"I was trying to think if we could have made it through this format with last year’s (pitchers),” Criswell said of last year’s squad, which reached the state semifinals. “I don’t know if that could have actually worked.” 

Coeur d’Alene, by earning the first-round bye as the team with the best MaxPreps rankings of the three, could have gotten through the Play-In Series in just two games. But even pushed to an extra game, the Vikings had just enough pitching. 

Just to be safe, Coeur d’Alene coach Brandon Williams said he brought up a couple pitchers from the junior varsity for the tournament, just to have enough arms. One threw an inning in the loss to Lake City. 

Williams said he usually only has 15 or 16 on the varsity (the limit is 20), so he had room to add pitching. 

In Lake City’s most important game of the season — the 6-5 loss to Coeur d’Alene — Criswell had to use three guys who had pitched a combined 14 innings all season. 

Next year? 

“I think we’ve got to go to a Thursday night game,” Colonel said, agreeing with Criswell. “I know the way it’s set up, it’s questionable on how the pitching’s going to work. Who’s set up better? We won the (first) game, but Lake City’s set up better with pitching. That’s unusual. I don’t remember the last time we played three games in a day.” 

Then Colonel, who recalled his CSI days, playing North Idaho College up here and hitting a couple of homers, paused. 

"But, Coeur d’Alene’s beautiful this time of year,” he said with a slight smile. 

A WAY to give a few more teams a chance to play for a state title — appeasing districts with more state-worthy teams than their usual allotment would allow — was one reason the Idaho High School Activities Association and its baseball committee OK’d this new format for determining a state baseball champion, on a two-year trial basis. 

More teams in the hunt, and a chance to still win a state title after a loss were two of the advantages. 

It will be interesting to see how those people pushing for other state tournaments to expand from eight teams — boys and girls basketball, in particular — react. 

Perhaps eight teams (seeds 5-12) meet somewhere on a “Super Saturday” for four games, with the winners advancing to join the top four seeds at state the following Thursday. Or have seeds 5-12 play off that Wednesday at the state site, with the losers out. 

Whatever format it turns out to be, it likely will match the excitement caused by the recent baseball Super Regionals — er, the State Play-in Series. 

And teams won’t worry about running out of pitching. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.