THE FRONT ROW with Mark Nelke May 9, 2013
It's a box-score nightmare - though that only really matters to whoever has to type all those names in.
Twice this season, Coeur d'Alene High has used multiple pitchers in an attempt to slow down the mighty offensive machine that is the Lake City softball team.
Both times, the result was a one-sided win by Lake City. The latest example was Tuesday, when freshmen Mariah Montee and Breana Burke, and senior Lindsie Scholwinski, threw against the Timberwolves - rotated in and out, depending on the matchup.
"We had our freshmen throwing against the particular people that we thought had the most trouble with their pitching style," said Coeur d'Alene coach Larry Bieber, who tried four pitchers the other time he employed that strategy. "And then we let 'Ski' (Scholwinski) come in and do her thing - throwing hard, and getting outs. She is our No. 1 pitcher, and we'll probably have to ride her all the way through to get to the state championship game, and when we get there, we'll probably try something like this again."
LAKE CITY qualified for state by beating Coeur d'Alene 12-1 on Tuesday in the 5A Region 1 title game. The Vikings have to win two more games to get back to state - today at home vs. Lewiston, then a play-in game Saturday at Fruitland.
State is next Friday and Saturday at Ramsey Park in Coeur d'Alene.
"I don't see anybody who is going to beat Lake City on the way there (to the state title game)," Bieber said. "Our plan is to beat everybody else, so we can get there."
Montee, a right-hander, started Tuesday's game in the circle for Coeur d'Alene, and pitched to the first three batters. Scholwinski, a lefty who beat Lake City in the state title game last year, came in (she was the designated player) and pitched to the next six batters.
Montee pitched to Lake City leadoff batter Vanessa Shippy to start the third. Burke, another righty, came in from right field and pitched to No. 2 hitter JaeCie Wilson. Montee came back to pitch to Casey Stangel, then Scholwinski faced cleanup hitter Lindsey Willmon.
And on and on it went. All told, there were 12 pitching changes - that is, unless they snuck another pitcher in there when we weren't looking. The Vikings also switched pitchers after one pitch in an at-bat.
"It didn't affect us at all," said Lake City junior shortstop Dakota Wilson, who went 2 for 3 with a two-run homer and four RBIs in the game. "It didn't matter who they pitched at us, we were going to come at them hard, regardless of what's thrown."
TUESDAY'S GAME was close for a while - Lake City led 3-1 before pulling away with four runs in the fifth inning, and five more in the sixth to end the game on the 10-run rule.
If you're scoring at home, the Viking battery went like this:
Mariah Montee, Lindsie Scholwinski (1), Montee (3), Breana Burke (3), Montee (3), Scholwinski (3), Montee (5), Burke (5), Montee (5), Scholwinski (5), Burke (6), Montee (6), Scholwinski (6) and Rashell Shaffer.
By comparison, Lake City's battery was pretty simple: Casey Stangel and Lindsey Willmon.
Coeur d'Alene has lost all five meetings to Lake City (24-0) this season. Of course, the Vikings had lost 10 in a row to the Timberwolves heading into last year's state title game, when Coeur d'Alene pulled the upset.
So if this unconventional strategy leads to another state title, Bieber could care less how big the box score is.
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.