STATE LEGION BASEBALL TOURNAMENTS: Another dramatic dub for Northern Lakes
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 2 hours, 22 minutes AGO
CLASS A
NAMPA — If it wasn't dramatic, it's not Northern Lakes baseball.
And yeah, it was dramatic.
"It's kind of a feeling like you're never out of it," Northern Lakes coach Bryce Johnson said. "I started calling the game like things aren't working well and trying to save pitchers and looking at other things. Then, there's that spark of life."
Northern Lakes, which rallied from a 9-5 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, scored twice in the bottom of the seventh, capped by a walk-off single by Jake Larcher to give the Mountaineers an 11-10 win over Blackfoot in the opening round of the state Class A tournament at Rodeo Park on Thursday.
Northern Lakes infielder Dane Perkl drew a bases loaded walk to score Gage Haines to tie the game at 10-10 in the seventh. The Mountaineers tied the game at 9-9 in the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Grant Rigler.
"I can't give them enough credit for their belief in themselves and their teammates," Johnson said. "I was beginning to think we'd ran out of magic, and Grant has a good at-bat and we came out and put the pressure on them. We're at a point right now where we could win a game 25-24 or 1-0. It's been really fun to watch."
Matthew Junkin and Parker Byrd drove in two runs each for Northern Lakes (26-6), which faces the Burley Green Sox today at 2 p.m. PST. Burley beat the Middleton Vikes 16-1 earlier on Thursday.
NORTHERN LAKES 11, BLACKFOOT 10
Blackfoot 121 230 1 — 10 9 1
Northern Lakes 014 040 2 — 11 7 3
One out when winning run scored.
Jason Williams, Adriel Moss (3), Brody Piper (5), Jagger Wren (7), Case Reynolds (7) and Bowen Mills; Ryker Brennan, Ethan Pecor (4), Jake Larcher (5) and Gage Haines.
HITS: Black — Wren, Williams 2, Layton, Reynolds, Poole 2, Mills, Moss. NL — Larcher 2, Pecor, Junkin, Byrd, Haines, Rigler. 2B — Williams, Pecor. 3B — Junkin.
CLASS AA
Twin Falls Cowboys 8
Prairie 4
LEWISTON — Maddox Stadelmeir hit a go-ahead single in the bottom of the fourth inning for the Cowboys, who scored four runs in the bottom of the third inning to pull away from the Cardinals in the state Class AA tournament opener for both at Church Field.
Andrew Olson, who finished with three hits, had an RBI single in the second inning to tie the game at 2-2 for Prairie (16-14-1), which faces Coeur d'Alene in a loser-out game today at 9 a.m. at Church Field.
Jordan Bingham had two RBIs for Twin Falls (17-15), which faces the Idaho Falls Bandits (32-6) today at 3 p.m. Idaho Falls beat the Nampa Chiefs 15-5 in an opening round game.
Prairie 110 002 0 — 4 8 1
Twin Falls 200 402 x — 8 17 2
Gavin Wienker, Grady Stinson (4), Timothy Howard (6), Andrew Olson (6) and Bryce Berger; Jordan Bingham, Kamden Richter (2), Jaxson Kasel (5) and Maddox Stadelmeir.
HITS: Pra — Howard, Stinson, Berger, Morast 2, Olson 3. TF — Carter 2, Stadelmeir 3, Murray 2, Walker 2, Bingham 2, Lee 3, Reyes, Black 2. 2B — Howard, Morast, Reyes, Carter.
Pocatello 7
Coeur d'Alene 3
LEWISTON — The Runnin’ Rebels scored six runs in the bottom of the third inning to pull away from the Lumbermen in a state Class AA tournament opener at Church Field.
Malcolm MacNiven hit a two-run single to score Jack Pierce and Rylan Anstine to give the Lums a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Coeur d’Alene (12-15) extended the lead to 3-1 on an RBI single by Justin Fagan in the third to score Pierce.
Cody Smith had two RBIs for Pocatello (18-19-1), which fell to Middleton in a second round game 4-3. The Runnin’ Rebels will face either Minico or Idaho Prime in a loser-out game today.
Coeur d'Alene 201 000 0 — 3 8 1
Pocatello 106 000 x — 7 10 4
JD Davenport, Will D'Orazi (6) and Colton Nordman; Dawsyn Peterson, Tyler Adams (6) and Carter Carey.
HITS: Cd'A — Fagan 2, Huss, MacNiven 2, Franklin, Morton 2. Poc — Peterson 2, Aguilar 2, Reynolds 2, Andersen, Lish, Rosales, Smith. 2B — Huss, Morton 2, Reynolds, Peterson.