Kluss is clutch

COEUR d'ALENE - If the Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen plan to have success at the American Legion baseball Class AA state tournament, which starts today at Thorco Field, then center fielder/pitcher Devin Kluss needs to do what he's been doing all season long - use his speed to track down fly balls in the outfield and hit the ball often and with authority.

"I've said since day one, since the beginning of the summer, that every single time we've stepped on the field, he's been the most talented player on it," Coeur d'Alene coach Zach Clanton said.

The Lumbermen will host the 'AA' state tournament this year for the first time since 2005 when Clanton was in the Legion program and heading into his sophomore year at Lake City High.

It will be the first time the Lumbermen host the 'AA' state tournament at Thorco Field as Coeur d'Alene used to play its home games at McEuen Field through the 2012 summer.

"It's anyone's game," Clanton said of the state tournament. "It's who can get hot at the right time and I know our bats are hot right now. It's just whether or not we can put it together on the defensive side too."

The Lumbermen will begin their quest for a state championship today when they take on the Meridian Rangers (22-13) at 7:30 p.m. Meridian is the Area B two seed and Coeur d'Alene (30-20) is the Area A two seed.

If Coeur d'Alene beats Meridian, it will play the winner of the Boise Gems-Twin Falls Cowboys game Wednesday at 7 p.m. If Coeur d'Alene loses to Meridian, it will play in a loser-out game against the loser of the Gems-Cowboys game Wednesday at 1 p.m.

The tournament concludes Saturday.

The state champion moves on to play at the Northwest Regional Aug. 5-9 in Cheyenne, Wyo., and the winner of that regional goes to the World Series, which runs Aug. 15-19 in Shelby, N.C.

"It would be a good opportunity for them to play in front of a bunch of people," Clanton said of playing state at home. "This is a good community when it comes to baseball and supporting the guys when there's a big-time tournament on the line. It's not, obviously, the most state tournament-like atmosphere but we'll make the most of it. We'll take the automatic berth and go from there."

The Lewis-Clark Twins (28-22) are the Area A one seed and will take on the Nampa Chiefs - the Area B three seed - today at 10 a.m.

"I think we just got our longest winning streak of the year - six games," Twins coach Allen Balmer said. "I mean that's always a good thing. It's always good to play your best at the end. I'm happy to see that and hopefully we can carry on to state."

The Twins beat the Lumbermen in the Area A (district) title game Saturday at Thorco, but Kluss and the Lumbermen will look to do damage at the state tournament.

Clanton said Kluss is a five-tool player, which is hard to find.

"They don't come very often like him," Clanton said. "He's got five tools. He's got speed, he's got power, he can hit for average, he has an arm (and he can field). There's just few and far between that you find guys like him. What I've always told him is if he's able to find the mental side of the game that goes along with the physical, I think he has the ability to play this game for money."

Kluss, who graduated from Coeur d'Alene High in June, has drawn interest from colleges to play baseball.

"With Whitworth, they were going to offer him about $20,000 just because he's a damn-near 4.0 student and then he'd still be paying about $25,000 just because that's how expensive Whitworth is, so he started leaning a little bit toward not playing baseball and going to U of I," Clanton said. ... "But once L-C State decided they were going to make an offer, I told him that's a pretty unique opportunity. I don't think it's something I would turn down if I was you. It sounds like they're willing to work with him and making sure that he can get healthy and all that stuff so that he can take some rest and make sure that things are 100 percent right."

Kluss tore his lateral meniscus in his left knee last October. He had surgery on New Year's Eve, which was right in the middle of his basketball season at Coeur d'Alene High.

Kluss said his knee has been bothering him a little bit off and on this baseball season.

Kluss aggravated his knee during Saturday's district championship game. He slid headfirst into second and hit his knee on the ground.

"My knee's getting better," Kluss said. "It wasn't really much. I just kind of banged it up sliding into second. I kind of bruised it a little bit. I'm just going to give it rest (Sunday and Monday) and get back to full strength."

Two batters later, with Kluss still on the base paths, Gibson Green hit a two-run home run. Kluss was pitching at that point during the game.

"It looked like he was going to be fine but when Gibson hit the home run, he was hobbling pretty bad," Clanton said. "He just told me he couldn't go anymore. That's why we made the decision to go to Elliott (Sparks, to pitch)."

Clanton expects Kluss to play at state though.

"He's usually fine," Clanton said. "He's really got to get on the anti-inflammatories and get on the ice and whatnot and hopefully get a shot in the next couple days and I think he should be able to go. Even if it means just having him DH instead of playing in center field in the tournament. We just need his bat in the lineup."

"I've been trying as hard as I can to get him out of the lineup every once in a while and try to get him some rest," Clanton said. "But down the stretch run, he's obviously one of our better players. We need to ride our horses. He gets a shot about once every other week that helps out with some of the swelling and makes him feel a little bit better. So he plans to get one of those before the state tournament."

Balmer, who is also an assistant coach at Lewis-Clark State College, offered Kluss a tryout for L-C State.

"A couple days ago L-C State told me to come work out for them," Kluss said. "They had some money set aside and they liked me."