Viks oust Lake City, still in title hunt

Coeur d’Alene goes 2-1 on first day, needs four wins today for title

NAMPA — They had plans to meet later today for the state 5A softball championship.

Those plans got ruined.

Instead, the Coeur d’Alene Vikings and Lake City Timberwolves faced off in a loser-out game at the Skyview Softball Complex on Friday afternoon.

And it was just your ordinary matchup between the cross-town rivals.

Coeur d’Alene opened a 3-0 lead after four innings, then had to hold on late, winning the game 3-2 to move on, meanwhile sending the defending state champion Timberwolves home.

“It was a really good game,” Coeur d’Alene coach Larry Bieber said. “It was a well-played game.”

Earlier, Coeur d’Alene beat Boise 2-0 in the opening round before losing to Rocky Mountain of Meridian 1-0. Lake City lost to Eagle in the opening round 10-8 before beating Skyline of Pocatello 14-4 in a loser-out game.

Coeur d’Alene (22-4) faces Boise again today at 9 a.m. PDT, needing four straight wins to win a state title.

Lake City finishes 20-8.

“I was proud of our team in the way we competed and battled today,” Lake City coach Laura Tolzmann-Fierro said. “With Coeur d’Alene we had a couple early errors and couldn’t string hits together. Overall, I’m proud of this group. They represented Lake City softball well today.”

Coeur d’Alene 3, Lake City 2: Trailing 3-0 with two out in the seventh, Lake City got back-to-back hits from Vanessa Shippy and JaeCie Wilson, who came around to score on a Hailey Jackson single.

On the throw to the plate, Coeur d’Alene pitcher Breana Burke cut the throw off and Jackson ending up being tagged out in a rundown between second and third, ending the game.

“It was just a typical Lake City-Coeur d’Alene game,” Bieber said. “Now all we’ve got to do is win four and we’re in the promised land.”

Burke struck out seven in the win for Coeur d’Alene.

Coeur d’Alene 100 200 0 — 3 2 1

Lake City 000 000 2 — 2 9 4

Breana Burke and Abby Howard; Jordyn McCracken and Chloe Falciani, Kimmie Cook (3). W — Burke (14-4). L — McCracken (13-7).

HITS: Cd’A — Howard, Parker. LC — Jackson, Shippy 2, Nelson, McCracken, D. Wilson, J. Wilson 2, Hawkes. 2B — Parker.

Rocky Mountain 1, Coeur d’Alene 0: Jenna Leavitt had an RBI single in the third inning to lift the Grizzlies past the Vikings in a second-round game.

“I think we were just on our heels the entire game because we thought we’d blow right through them,” Bieber said. “Instead of just trying to put the ball in play, everyone was trying to hit a home run and we didn’t make the adjustment. We were just out of whack in that game.”

Coeur d’Alene 000 000 0 — 0 5 1

Rocky Mountain 001 000 x — 1 4 1

Breana Burke and Abby Howard; Hayden McKenney and Maddy Smith. W — McKenney. L — Burke (13-4).

HITS: Cd’A — Parker, Smith, Howard, K. Albertson, Rasmussen. RM — Leavitt 3, Pestka.

Lake City 14, Skyline 4: Jackson finished with three RBIs and Dakota Wilson hit a two-run home run in a 14-run seventh inning as the Timberwolves rallied to eliminate the Grizzlies in a loser-out game.

“We came together as one against Skyline, putting up 14 runs in one inning,” Tolzmann-Fierro said. “I’ve never seen anything like that. It was a big team victory.”

Lake City 000 000 (14) — 14 17 5

Skyline 202 000 0 — 4 5 4

Michaela Flerchinger, Jordyn McCracken (3) and Kimmie Cook, Chloe Falciani (6); Kylee Burnside, Megan Smith (7) and Natalie Christensen. W — McCracken (13-6). L — Smith.

HITS: LC — Gay 2, Jackson 2, Shippy 2, Nelson 2, McCracken 2, D. Wilson, J. Wilson 3, Cavanaugh 2, Hawkes. Sky — Cottle 2, Smith, Giannini 2. 2B — Gay, Shippy, McCracken, Cavanaugh, Smith. HR — Wilson.

Coeur d’Alene 2, Boise 0: Kayla Albertson hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning, helping the Vikings get past the Braves in the opening round.

“The pitching for both teams was really good,” Bieber said. “Kayla likes to hit that high pitch, but found something right at her knees and golfed it out. It was a good game all around and we played some good defense in that game.”

Boise 000 000 0 — 0 3 1

Coeur d’Alene 000 101 0 — 2 6 0

Elena Cook and Mallory Barber; Breana Burke and Abby Howard. W — Burke (13-3). L — Cook.

HITS: Boise — Cook, Wilson, Butler. Cd’A — Parker, K. Albertson 2, B. Albertson, Howard, Clark. 2B — B. Albertson. HR — K. Albertson (4).

Eagle 10, Lake City 8: Bailey Cavanaugh hit a two-run home run in the third inning and Jordyn McCracken had two RBIs for the Timberwolves, which allowed the Mustangs to score five runs in the seventh inning of the opening-round game.

Eagle 220 100 5 — 10 11 4

Lake City 222 110 0 — 8 12 5

Autumn Moffat and Chloe Asroui; Michaela Flerchinger, Jordyn McCracken (3) and Chloe Falciani, Kimmie Cook (6). W — Moffat. L — McCracken (12-6).

HITS: Eag — Corta, Filmore 3, Asroui, Moffat 3, Velazquez 2, Fisher. LC — Jackson 2, Shippy, Nelson 2, McCracken 2, D. Wilson,

J. Wilson 2, Cavanaugh 2. 2B — Filmore, Nelson, Cavanaugh. HR — Cavanaugh.

Timberlake out in two in 3A

NAMPA — The Tigers, District 1 champions, went two and out at the state 3A tournament, losing 12-8 to Sugar-Salem and 12-2 to Buhl at the West Park Softball Complex.

Timberlake, which played at state for the 15th straight year, finished 12-11.

“It was really prototypical of our season,” said Mike Menti, in his 15th season as Timberlake coach. “We’ve have a couple bad innings, and later in the year we learned to recover from them and today we didn’t, and those bad innings did us in.”

Katie Malloy had an RBI triple in the third inning for Timberlake in the first game, and Olyvia Owen and Katie Malloy each had three hits. Amanda Rudd hit a two-run home run in the second inning for Sugar-Salem.

Against Buhl, Justina Kalar had three hits for Timberlake.

“I thought our pitchers threw well, but we made errors behind them,” Menti said. “But we battled in both games. When you get to the state tournament you’re either ready to go or you’re not, and we weren’t quite ready defensively.”

SUGAR-SALEM 12, TIMBERLAKE 8

Sugar-Salem 320 322 0 — 12 11 4

Timberlake 202 000 4 — 8 9 4

B. Larson and S. Schwindimm; Shelby Salois and Jamie Lickfold. W — Larson. L — Salois.

HITS: SS — Larson, A. Rudd 2, Clark 2, Clay, McCormick 2, H. Rudd, Wellar, Orr. TL — Mallet 2, Owen 3, Malloy 3, McGrath. 2B — McCormick, Rudd, Owen 2. 3B — Malloy. HR — Rudd.

BUHL 12, TIMBERLAKE 2

Timberlake 100 01 — 2 9 2

Buhl 701 4x — 12 13 0

Brittany Hibdon and Jamie Lickfold; Bree Pettinger and Emily Hamilton. W — Pettinger. L — Hibdon.

HITS: TL — Mallet 2, Kalar 3, Owen, Malloy, Rocheleau, Carhart. Buhl — Morse 2, Anderson 1, Hamilton, Pettinger 2, Amoth 2, Brodine 2, Brinkman, Morse 2. 2B — Pettinger, Amoth, Morse.

St. Maries out in two in 2A

NAMPA — The Lumberjacks lost 16-0 to New Plymouth and 15-2 to West Jefferson on the first day of the state 2A tournament at the West Park Softball Complex.

St. Maries finished 12-11.