THE FRONT ROW with Mark Nelke May 23, 2013

Five straight trips to state.

Four straight trophies brought home.

None have been the trophy they really wanted, but in the crapshoot that is the state high school baseball tournament, the Coeur d'Alene Vikings figure all they can do is keep going back to state, and one of these years they might bring home a title.

"Our expectations are always high at Coeur d'Alene," said Nick Rook, who has guided the Vikings to state in each of his five seasons as coach. "We'll get there (to state) again, and next time we'll be better off for being there."

Coeur d'Alene made it to the state title game for the first time in 12 years last weekend, falling to Timberline of Boise at Memorial Stadium in Boise. The Vikings won the consolation (fourth-place) title in 2012 and '11, tied for third in '10 (the third-place game was rained/snowed out), and went two and out in '09.

Coeur d'Alene is 2-3 in first-round games during that stretch, and since there are no mulligans in state baseball, the Vikings had their state title hopes dashed in the first game in three of those five years.

AS FOR this season, Coeur d'Alene (21-6) scored 10 or more runs in 12 of its 27 games, and 20 or more runs in five of those games. At state, the Vikings had a nine-inning stretch where they scored at least two runs in every inning. For the season, Coeur d'Alene averaged 10.6 runs per game, and batted .375 as a team.

"We scored a lot of runs, and did a lot of good things," Rook said. "Top to bottom, it was as offensive as we've ever been."

Senior Levi Pereira, a Gonzaga signee, batted .553 and hit a school-record 18 doubles. He hit six homers and drove in 43 runs, and 26 of his 47 hits were for extra bases.

In Coeur d'Alene's five postseason games (two in the 5A Region 1 tournament, three at state), Pereira went 15 for 20 with six doubles, a triple, four homers and 16 RBIs.

Senior Sean Sutton was hit by pitches a school-record 16 times. Apparently that sort of thing runs in the family, as the previous record of 14 was set by his brother, D.J. Sutton, in 2012.

Rook said this year's team was resilient when falling behind. Two of the bigger comebacks came vs. Lewiston in the regional title game (down 15-10 after 4 1/2 innings and came back to win 25-15) and vs. Madison of Rexburg in the state semifinals (down 11-5 after two innings and came back to win 20-13). Rook said the Vikings' record could have easily been something like 24-2 - or something like 16-10.

"We won a lot of games coming from behind," Rook said.

SINCE THE format for state baseball will likely never change to double-elimination - or even a best-of-three series for the championship - the importance of each game at state will continue to be magnified.

Timberline finished seventh in the 10-team 5A Southern Idaho Conference - only the top eight make it to the District 3 tournament - but got hot at the right time.

For Coeur d'Alene, meanwhile, after the Vikings' string of nine straight innings ended after the first inning of the title game, Coeur d'Alene did not score the rest of the game.

"The state tournament comes down to pitching and defense, and hitting is third," Rook said. "In the state playoffs, making one error is like making three errors during the season. One mistake can be fatal, and we certainly didn't play good defense."

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.