PREP BASEBALL STATE REGIONAL SERIES: Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene, Timberlake all ousted

6A  

POST FALLS — There were lots of hugs among Post Falls Trojans players and coaches late Saturday morning at Post Falls High. 

The 10th-seeded Trojans, who advanced to state for the first time since 2018, saw their season end with a 7-1 loss to the No. 2 Mountain View Mavericks of Meridian. 

“Starting out 2-9, and coming back to win districts, beating Coeur d’Alene and getting a state appearance for the first time since 2018, it means a lot. I’m proud of this team,” said Post Falls senior pitcher/first baseman Michael O’Connor, who has signed with Tacoma Community College. “I think we played with a lot of nerves, put a lot of pressure on ourselves because of the big moment. Just a lot of mental errors and physical errors. I’m still proud of this team that we made it here.” 

Post Falls, which lost its opener to Ridgeview of Nampa 8-5 on Friday, finished 12-11. 

“Probably the first day we were a little nervous, unprepared for that. They just didn’t play like they normally have been playing,” fifth-year Post Falls coach Kurt Reese said. “Today we battled; we played Mountain View tough today; it kinda got away from us at the end. Couple key hits by them, walks by us. But we could have easily won that game.

Later Saturday, Mountain View then went on to beat No. 7 Ridgevue twice, 7-4 and 12-2, to advance to the state championship series at Memorial Stadium in Garden City starting Thursday.

On Saturday, Post Falls pulled to within 2-1 in the top of the fourth inning when O’Connor doubled and scored an a single by Ben Carrasco. 

Mountain View scored four times in the bottom of the fifth to break it open. Ryder Hollifiend hit a two-run double for the Mavericks, and Preston Flournoy and Chris Maiocca followed with run-scoring singles. 

O’Connor, the starting pitcher on Friday, and Carrasco each finished with two hits for Post Falls.  

“It’s good for our seniors to win a district title; that hasn’t happened in eight years,” Reese said. “So that’s what we’re going to focus on, what we accomplished this season as a whole, versus the last two days.” 

Post Falls     000    100    0    —    1    8    0 

Mountain View     020    041    x    —     7    9    1 

Gavin Wienker, Caden Perkins (5) and Marshall Tomlinson; Owen Perry and Tav Hiaring. 

HITS: PF — A. Carrasco, Tomlinson, O’Connor 2, B. Carrasco 2, Perkins, Berend. MV — Schneidt 2, Hiaring, Hollifield, Flournoy, Maiocca, Schellhammer, Hatfield, Gray. 2B — O’Connor, Hollifield. 3B — Schneidt. 

Rocky Mountain 16 

Coeur d’Alene 12 

EAGLE — Senior Beckett Larson hit a two-run single to score senior Bam Fenter and senior Gavin Helms with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning for the Vikings, who rallied from an 12-3 deficit with seven runs in the fifth before falling to the sixth-seeded Grizzlies of Meridian in a state 6A West No. 2 Regional loser-out game at Eagle High. 

Coeur d’Alene finished 10-10. 

Helms had an RBI single in the fourth to make it 12-4, then senior Dylan Cook followed with an RBI double to make it 12-5.  

Senior James Togiailua hit a two-run double to make it 13-8 in the fifth. 

Rocky Mountain beat Eagle 4-3 to force an if-necessary game, but the Mustangs (20-7) beat the Grizzlies (16-13) 5-4 to advance to the state championship series starting on Thursday at Memorial Stadium in Garden City. 

Rocky Mountain        351    310    3    —    16    13    2 

Coeur d’Alene        102    270    0    —    12    11    5 

Josh Wright, Cole Whipple (5), Javin Ellett (5) and Ben Chandler; Tyler Kernkamp, Tucker Ackerman (1), Asa Morton (2), Vinny Paliotto (4), Trevor Booze (5), Dylan Cook (6) and James Togiailua. 

HITS: RM — Henzler 3, Ellett, Chandler 2, Weathers 2, Fuss 2, Ball, Frausto 2. Cd’A — Fenter 3, Helms 4, Cook, Larson, Bishop, Togiailiua. 2B — Ellett, Chandler, Henzler, Frausto, Cook, Togiailua, Helms, Bishop, Fenter. 

4A

Fruitland 14 

Timberlake 2 

FRUITLAND — The eighth-seeded Tigers bowed out in two games to the top-seeded Grizzlies in a state 4A best-of-3 series at Fruitland High. 

Timberlake took a 2-1 lead on an RBI single by senior Tanner Van Tassel to score sophomore Dane Perkl. Fruitland loaded the bases in the top of the third inning and regained the lead on back-to-back wild pitches, with Fruitland’s Crew Stringer scoring to make it 3-2. 

Timberlake finished 15-10. 

Fruitland (21-2-1) advances to the state 4A championship series starting on Friday at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. 

Fruitland    104    63    —    14    8    0 

Timberlake    200    00    —    2    3    5 

Owen Baker, Cameron McKinney (4), Nate Grosvenor (5) and Sutton Finch; Ryker Brennan, Tanner Van Tassel (4) and Gage Haines. 

HITS: Fruit — Vidlak 3, Grosvenor, Baker, Grosdidier 2, Fitch. TL — Perkl, Beardsall, Van Tassel. 2B — none. 3B — none. 

    MARK NELKE/Press Post Falls second baseman Karl Berend accepts the throw and tags out Tyler Gray of Mountain View trying to steal second during Saturday morning's 6A baseball state regional series loser-out game at Post Falls High.