THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Some fans of the Seattle Mariners might be hopping off that bandwagon after a less-than-impressive 5-8 start.

With 149 games remaining in the season, it's a little early for that.

Now, if you're looking to be one of area high school softball or golf teams hoping to stay home for state tournaments in Kootenai County in a few weeks, there's no better time than now to get the ball rolling the right away.

IN A little over three weeks, Post Falls High (5A) and Ramsey Park (4A and 3A) will host state softball tournaments on May 15 and 16.

Coeur d'Alene and Lake City appeared poised to represent the area with both Post Falls and Lewiston going through some rebuilding this season.

Doubleheaders like the one on Tuesday at Coeur d'Alene and April 28 at Lake City will go a long way in determining who will host the Region 1 tournament starting on May 5.

This year, the area gets the additional bonus of hosting state golf tournaments in all four classifications.

The state 5A tournament will be held at Avondale Golf Club in Hayden, the 4A tournament at The Links Golf Course in Post Falls and 3A tournament at Twin Lakes Village Golf Course in Rathdrum. The 2A tourney is scheduled for Lewiston.

In Monday's Lake City Invitational - where most of the area 5A and 4A teams participated - the Post Falls boys and Lakeland girls won team titles. The Trojans clipped Lewiston by four strokes (304-308) and Lakeland beat Lewiston by eight strokes (372-380). Coeur d'Alene finished eight strokes behind Lewiston for second in the tournament.

The top two teams in 5A automatically advance to state, with the regional champion advancing in 4A. Region 1 will get an additional team to state in 5A for hosting the tournament.

With the prep schedule coming to a close, area teams have been taking advantage of the nice weather by shooting nice scores.

Hopefully both hang around a few weeks longer.

SOME FANS have wanted to throw a remote through the television after watching the Mariners get out to a 5-8 start.

Myself included.

But this seems to happen every year anymore with this team.

The starting pitchers - with the exception of Felix Hernandez - hasn't quite been as advertised, and that's OK.

Some players aren't driving in the amount of runs they should be. But if Sunday's game is any indication - where the Mariners fell behind 7-2, and fought back and won 11-10 - there's plenty of fight in this team.

In recent years, slow starts have plagued them to the point where they're not even in the mix at the end of the season.

It's still early in the season - way too early to be writing anybody off.

If anyone should panic, it should be the other guys.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d'Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at JEPressSports.