Prairie wins two more at Best of Northwest tourney
<p>Prairie's Tyler Shaffer races back to first base after a Twin City defender dropped the ball during a third inning run down.</p>
<p>Prairie's Derek Bumgarner slides safely into home plate, beating the tag from Tyler Earley, catcher for the Twin City Titans, in the third inning Thursday during the American Legion Best of the Northwest baseball tournament in Post Falls.</p>
POST FALLS - The Prairie Cardinals beat Twin City of the Tri-Cities 11-5 and defeated the Lobos of Portland, Ore., 4-2 on Thursday at Post Falls High to improve to 3-0 in pod play at the Best of the Northwest wood-bat tournament.
Taylor Valente's two-run triple in the top of the seventh for Prairie keyed a five-run inning that broke open the first game against Twin City.
Against the Lobos, the Cardinals used some small ball to scratch out four runs.
With Prairie trailing 2-0, Tony Davidson reached on a bunt single in the fourth, stole second base, moved up to third on an overthrow, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Joe Schwalbach.
In the fifth, Eric Cooper's squeeze bunt scored Gil Givens to trigger a three-run uprising for Prairie.
"We tried doing it (small ball) here and there earlier in the season, and didn’t do that good of a job,” Prairie coach Dustin Frank said. “We’ve worked on it, and it paid off today.”
Zack Reeder struck out eight in 5 2/3 innings in the second game for Prairie, which wraps up pod play today against the Club Spokane Dodgers White at 3 p.m. at Post Falls High.
PRAIRIE 11, TWIN CITY 5
Prairie 006 000 5 — 11 8 3
Twin City 101 010 2 — 5 7 4
Jeremy McKinney, Tyler Shaffer (5) and Darnell Metcalf; Twin City battery not available. W — McKinney (2-2). L — N/A.
HITS: Pra — Reeder, Metcalf, Cooper 2, Collier 2, Schwalbach, Valente. TC — not available. 2B — Cooper. 3B — Valente.
PRAIRIE 4, LOBOS 2
Prairie 000 130 0 — 4 8 2
Lobos 020 000 0 — 2 5 1
Zack Reeder, Taylor Valente (6) and Darnell Metcalf; Lobos battery not available. W — Reeder (4-1). L — N/A.
HITS: Pra — Givens, Reeder 2, Metcalf 2, Davidson, Valente, McKinney. Lob — not available. 2B — Reeder.
Lums open
with two wins
COEUR d’ALENE — Joe Roletto went 7 for 8 with seven runs and three RBIs as the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen beat the Spokane Crew 8-4 and the Wilkinson Baseball Academy of Lynnwood, Wash., 17-3 to open pod play at the Best of the Northwest wood-bat tournament at McEuen Field.
Roletto, the leadoff hitter for the Lums (15-1), was 3 for 4 and scored three runs in the first game, and 4 for 4 with four runs and three RBIs in the second.
Colin Comack, Coeur d’Alene’s No. 3 hitter, suffered a twisted ankle in practice on Wednesday, leaving the Lums with just 11 players Thursday.
“We needed somebody to step up, and Joe did it in a big way,” Coeur d’Alene coach Lloyd Duman said.
Chad Nyquist went 3 for 4 with four RBIs against Wilkinson, including a two-run home run in the third inning. Nick Nyquist, Chad’s younger brother, went 2 for 4 with four RBIs, including a three-run homer in the fourth.
“Chad just hit a shot as a home run. We’ve been working with Nick to get his weight back and he hit a shot the next inning — it was funny,” Duman said.
Grant Curtis went 3 for 3 with a solo homer in the fourth.
Against the Spokane Crew, Pete Hoffman struck out six and scattered four hits in a complete game for the Lums. Chad Nyquist hit a two-run double in the second inning.
Coeur d’Alene plays AIM today at 11:30 a.m. and the Blaze at 7 p.m., both at McEuen Field, to wrap up pod play.
COEUR d’ALENE 8, SPOKANE CREW 4
Coeur d’Alene 340 100 0 — 8 8 1
Spokane Crew 110 020 0 — 4 4 0
Pete Hoffman and Joe Roletto; Grogan and Clegon. W — Hoffman (3-1). L — Grogan.
HITS: Cd’A — Roletto 3, C. Nyquist 2, N. Nyquist 2, Hoffman. Crew — Wolfe 2, Harbolt, Cook. 2B — C. Nyquist, N. Nyquist. Cook.
COEUR d’ALENE 17, WILKINSON 3
Wilkinson 000 03 — 3 4 3
Coeur d’Alene 148 4x — 17 16 0
Game called in 5th inning due to 10-run rule.
Scott Kramer, Scheppe (3), Hayden (4) and Kepple; Suraj Kedia and Kolby DeHaas. W — Kedia (4-0). L — Kramer.
HITS: Wil — Schuepzle, Uluestad, Hayden, Scheppe. Cd’A — Roletto 4, Cabeza, C. Nyquist 3, N. Nyquist 2, Curtis 3, S. Sutton, DeHaas, Nuttleman. 2B — Uluestad, Roletto 2, Cabeza. HR — C. Nyquist, N. Nyquist, Curtis.
Loggers win
tourney opener
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — The Coeur d’Alene Loggers pounded out 13 hits en route to a 9-5 victory over Hamer Electric of Longview, Wash., at Borleske Stadium in their first game of the Walla Walla tournament.
J.J. Winger pitched a complete game for the Loggers (7-6), striking out five and walking two. He also went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
Brent Wingham, Colby Kennedy and Sam Schultz also went 2 for 4, with Kennedy doubling and driving in two runs.
The Loggers play the Washington Rush today at 5:15 p.m. at Borleske Stadium, then wrap up pool play Saturday with two games at Walla Walla Community College.