State 5A baseball: Vikings come up empty

BOISE — The history books will forever show Timberline High of Boise as the 2013 5A state baseball champions.

Yet Coeur d’Alene baseball coach Nick Rook sees it another way despite the undeniable fact that the Wolves downed the Vikings 6-2 in Saturday’s title game at Memorial Stadium.

“Hats off to them,” Rook said of Timberline. “They played a little bit better this game but I still feel we’re the best team in the state.

“I still feel we can play with anybody. It’s too bad it comes down to one game. It really is.”

Coeur d’Alene (21-6) fell one victory short of a state crown as Timberline (17-11) received a strong performance from standout Cody Price, who scored three runs and shut down the Vikings’ bats with four innings of two-hit shutout relief.

A lack of key hits and a defensive miscue in Timberline’s three-run fourth inning sabotaged the Vikings’ chances at winning their first state championship.

Senior Levi Pereira had two of Coeur d’Alene’s seven hits, but it was the other two at-bats that bothered the standout first baseman.

Pereira twice came up with two runners on and two out and was unable to notch a clutch hit. His one-out single in the seventh was the Vikings’ lone hit over the final three innings.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing but we battled and battled throughout the tournament and we had two come-from-behind wins and we couldn’t quite pull this one off,” Pereira said. “Definitely some missed opportunities, myself included — two outs, runners on second and third and didn’t get anyone one. Same thing with first and second (in the fourth), couldn’t get anyone in.”

Coeur d’Alene reached the title games with wins over Eagle and Madison. The close-knit group was hoping for one more magical night but the potion ran out.

“We definitely did a lot of good things this year,” senior left fielder Brett Robbins said. “But if you’re not ending your year with a win, it’s a disappointment. The 21 wins — I’d rather have 11 wins with a state title.

“Looking back on it, we did a lot of good things but I’d take back all those to win a state championship.”

The game was tied 2-2 before the Wolves struck for three runs in the fourth. Parker Price’s safety-squeeze bunt knocked in the go-ahead run and Coeur d’Alene looked like it had a chance to get out of the inning without further damage when Cody Price hit a high flyball to left-center field with two outs.

But Vikings center fielder Devin Kluss was unable to make the catch — the play was ruled a double — to make it 4-2 and Timberline’s Nic Klena delivered a run-scoring single later in the inning.

“That didn’t go down as an error but it was certainly an error — the ball should have been caught,” Rook said. “It should’ve ended the inning. They get two more there — that didn’t help but in a game like this, you’re going to have to score more than two runs to win it.”

When Timberline’s Ryan Kim added an RBI single in the sixth to make it 6-2, Coeur d’Alene’s comeback task became harder and the title dream ended when Price retired Nick Nyquist on a fly to center.

“It wasn’t for a lack of effort,” Robbins said. “All these guys, we played our hardest. It just wasn’t our day.”

Vikings starter Sean Sutton was charged with six runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Timberline struck twice in the first on a run-scoring single by Michael Stefanic and a wild pitch by Sutton. The Vikings answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning on a hard-hit, run-scoring double by Pereira and a single by Nyquist.

The Vikings had five hits before Timberline pulled starter Colby Scott with two on and none out in the second. Coeur d’Alene had just one hit — by Gibson Green in the fourth — over a 5 1/3-inning stretch until Pereira singled with one out in the seventh.

Jonny Plum and Robbins had back-to-back singles in the second before Brian Ulrickson entered and retired the next three hitters, including Pereira on a grounder with runners on second and third. Ulrickson didn’t allow a hit in two innings.

In the Coeur d’Alene fourth, Pereira flied out to the warning track in left field with two runners on.

Despite the loss, Pereira pointed out advancing to the title game is a whole lot better than losing in the first game of the state tournament, as the Vikings did the previous two seasons.

“Obviously, it’s very disappointing but it’s a great way to end my senior year — getting a shot at a state title,” Pereira said. “Not a lot of kids even get a shot throughout their entire career. So it was good for me to get a chance my senior year.”

Timberline, which opened in 1998, won its fifth state title.

Timberline 200 301 0 — 6 11 0

Coeur d’Alene 200 000 0 — 2 7 1

Scott, Ulrickson (2), Price (4) and Roper. Sutton, Pereria (6) and DeHaas. W — Ulrickson. L — Sutton. S — Price.

HITS: TL — P. Price 3, C. Price 2, Stefanic, Klena, Kim, Wagner, Roper, Taylor. Cd’A — Pereira 2, Barrowcliff, Green, Nyquist, Plum, Robbins. 2B — C. Price, Pereira.