Prairie splits to open wood bat tourney
SPOKANE - The Prairie Cardinals split games in the opening day of the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Wood Bat tournament, defeating the Meridian Rangers 11-3 and falling 9-3 to Kennewick on Friday at Hart Field.
In the first game, Cody VanDuyne drove in Kurt South with a squeeze bunt in the fifth inning to give the Cardinals a 4-3 lead. VanDuyne and starting pitcher Cody Vandever combined to pick off seven runners in the game.
"Cody Vandever and Cody VanDuyne worked well together," Prairie coach Dustin Frank said. "That's how a pitcher and catcher are supposed to work at keeping them off base."
In the second game, Prairie left 11 runners in scoring position in the first four innings.
"To have 11 hits, I can't be disappointed," Frank said. "We just couldn't get a clutch hit. It was the biggest difference in the two games. We didn't make any errors and it's a tough loss - but the kids played fairly well. We're playing better baseball and doing the little things right. The kids are definitely coming around."
Prairie (9-15) faces Bellingham Post No. 7 today at 1 p.m. and the Spokane Bandits at 6 p.m. at Hart Field.
PRAIRIE 11, MERIDIAN 3
Prairie 000 326 - 11 9 1
Meridian 300 000 - 3 10 1
Cody Vandever and Cody VanDuyne; Issac Hooft and Zack McCarthy. W - Vandever (3-2). L - Issac.
HITS: Pra - Vandever 2, South, Tymesen 2, Shaffer, VanDuyne, Grieser, Peery. Mer - Alsager 2, Ward 2, Freter, Knauss, Valdez 2, Garvin, McCarthy. 2B - Grieser, Taylor.
KENNEWICK 9, PRAIRIE 3
Prairie 002 001 0 - 3 11 0
Kennewick 230 301 x - 9 8 2
Derek Tymesen, Jacob Coleman (4), Nik Leva (5) and Cody VanDuyne; Jones and Monfin. W - Jones. L - Tymesen (1-2).
HITS: Pra - Berger, Burnett 2, Smith 2, Vandever 2, South 2, Tymesen, VanDuyne. Kenn - Morby, O'Neil, Monsin 3, Mennenhall, Marston 2. 2B - Burnett, O'Neil, Monfin, Marston 2. HR - Monfin.
Lums drop opener in rain-delayed event
COEUR d'ALENE - Jake Fife went 2 for 4 as the Walla Walla Bears defeated the Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen 7-1 in their opening game of the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Wood Bat tournament at McEuen Field.
Games were pushed back two hours on Friday due to wet field conditions. Coeur d'Alene's game vs. Prospect Baseball was still in progress as The Press went to press.
Mitch Bevacqua hit an RBI single in the seventh inning and Chad Nyquist had a single and double for Coeur d'Alene (10-15).
Earlier at McEuen, the Eagle Vipers defeated the Rainier Legion 9-1, Pullman Patriots defeated Eagle 3-1 and Prospect Baseball defeated Walla Walla 10-2.
• West Kootenay defeated the GK Eagles 8-6, the Eagle Vipers defeated West Kootenay 3-2, Northwest Christian defeated the GK Eagles 5-4 and the Coeur d'Alene Loggers defeated the Eagle Vipers 9-5 in the Coeur d'Alene pool.
Coeur d'Alene and Northwest Christian were unable to get their game in due to darkness after games were moved from Coeur d'Alene High to West Valley due to poor field conditions.
Games are scheduled for Coeur d'Alene High today.
• In the junior division of the tournament, three games and part of a fourth were played in the pod at Lake City High before rained ended play for the day.
The Newport Grizzlies beat the Coeur d'Alene Lakers 10-1 in five innings, Sandpoint beat Newport 4-3 and Latah County beat University 2-0.
Sandpoint led Latah County 2-0 after three innings when rain stopped that game. It will be completed today.
The Lakers-University game was rained out and rescheduled for Sunday at 8 a.m.
The Lakers play Sandpoint at 10 a.m. and Latah County at 3:30 p.m. today.