PREP ROUNDUP: Moscow stuns Lakeland in 4A baseball opener
* BASEBALL
RATHDRUM - Lakeland won the 4A Inland Empire League with an 8-0 record, including winning all four games against Moscow, to earn the right to play at home throughout the Region 1 tournament.
But that advantage disappeared on Saturday, as Nolan Johnson hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning and Jarod Paul hit a three-run shot in the seventh as the second-seeded Moscow Bears beat the top-seeded Lakeland Hawks 9-3 in the 4A Region 1 semifinal game Saturday at Gorton Field.
Moscow (8-10), which beat third-seeded Sandpoint (0-20) 15-5 earlier on Saturday, will now host the championship game next Saturday in Moscow after stealing home-field advantage from Lakeland (16-4), which hosts Sandpoint in a loser-out game Wednesday at 4 p.m.
Moscow 9, Lakeland 3: Jeremy McKinney hit a solo home run in the first inning for Lakeland, but Moscow answered by going yard four times.
"They were just hitting the ball well today," Lakeland coach Jason Bradbury said. "Our pitchers weren't throwing well today and couldn't locate their spots and Moscow just hit the ball. We've got some work to do on Wednesday."
Wednesday's Sandpoint-Lakeland winner will need to beat Moscow twice next Saturday to advance to the state 4A tournament May 16-18 at Bishop Kelly High in Boise. Moscow needs just one win to advance.
"I told them after the game we've done it before," said Bradbury of winning on the road. "We definitely can do it, but just need to play like we can. Our guys didn't hit like they had all year and our bats were kind of flat today. Things didn't go our way, but hand it to Moscow, they were hitting the ball well."
Moscow 000 104 4 - 9 9 1
Lakeland 101 001 0 - 3 6 1
Jarod Paul and Karter Krassett; Evan Johnson, Jesse Marks (6), Blake Wrotenbery (7) and James Prockish. W - Paul. L - Marks (3-1).
HITS: Mos - Martin, Redinger, Paul, Johnson 3, O'Sullivan 2, Lindstrom. LL - Jackson, McKinney 2, Prockish, Wrotenbery, Marks. 2B - Martin, Johnson. 3B - Jackson. HR - Martin, Paul, Johnson, O'Sullivan, McKinney.
Moscow 15, Sandpoint 5, 5 inn.: Senior Nik Feyen had two RBIs for the Bulldogs, who took a 5-3 lead in the top of the third, but the Bears scored 12 unanswered runs to win the tournament opener.
The five runs equal a season high for Sandpoint, which was outhit 14-4.
Sandpoint 005 00 - 5 4 1
Moscow 033 63 - 15 14 0
Game called in 5th inning due to 10-run rule.
Paul Sundquist, Zac Farrell (4), Kyle Perry (4), Nate Stangel (5) and Sundquist; Moscow pitching not available. L - Sundquist (0-3).
HITS: Spt - Farrell, Feyen, Sundquist, Perry. Mos - Martin 3, Redinger 2, Johnson 2, O'Sullivan 4, Gresch, Martin 2. 2B - O'Sullivan, Martin. 3B - Martin.
St. Maries 10
Grangeville 6
ST. MARIES - Brandon Stapleton drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning as the Lumberjacks beat the Bulldogs in a Central Idaho League game at City Park.
"I'm just real happy with how the kids continued to compete," St. Maries coach Craig Tefft said. "They showed a lot of character and maturity and I kept telling them we were one inning away from doing some good things offensively and closed it out defensively in the seventh inning."
St. Maries (14-2, 11-1 CIL) will be the No. 1 seed to the 2A District 1-2 tournament in Orofino and face the winner of Tuesday's play-in game between Kendrick and Kamiah on Friday at 3 p.m.
No. 2 seed Grangeville (15-4) will play No. 3 Orofino (12-7) on Friday at 5 p.m.
Grangeville 301 020 0 - 6 9 4
St. Maries 001 126 x - 10 6 2
Jasper Sabantino, Sam Solberg (4), Alex Toberstein (6) and Jack Lawrence; Jordan Stapleton, Dillon Michael (3), Janks Maier (5) and Isaac Walters. W - Maier (2-1). L - Toberstein.
HITS: Gra - Harris, Solberg 2, Toberstein 3, Sabantino, Schumaker, Ruhnke. SM - J. Stapleton 2, Michael, Truscott 2, Lounsbury. 2B - Sabantino, Michael.