PREP SOFTBALL: Another sweep for Vikings
COEUR d’ALENE — After shaking off the emotions of her final games at Larry Schwenke Field, Coeur d’Alene senior Jane Wilkey came up with clutch hits in each game of 5-4 and 11-2 victories in a 5A Inland Empire League sweep of the visiting Lake City Timberwolves on Tuesday.
Wilkey hit a two-run home run in the third inning to tie the game at 3, then hit a two-run double in the second game to give the Vikings an early 2-1 lead in the first inning of the second game.
“I just kind of went up there knowing the situation and knowing what I needed to do,” Wilkey said. “With as big of a night as this was, it was probably the best outcome I could have hoped for. We all did really good today. With how well our season has gone, everyone is just pumped and excited for the next step we’re about to take and keeping that going.”
Coeur d’Alene (18-0, 10-0 5A IEL) locked up the top seed to the 5A Region 1 tournament and will host the opening round game next Tuesday at Larry Schwenke Field. Lake City (17-6, 8-4) will be the second seed.
“We think we’re heading in the right direction,” Coeur d’Alene coach Darren Taylor said. “It’s going to be nice having regionals here and it’s always nice when you’re at home. Senior day is always a wild card. They’re emotional and the routines are thrown out. I wasn’t surprised at all that they jumped out on us in the first game. We didn’t do our normal routine. But it ended up being a good lesson for us. That’s the most we’ve trailed (2-0) all season and we clawed back to end up winning in the end, so that was a good thing.”
Wilkey finished the day with five RBIs for Coeur d’Alene.
“She’s on fire now,” Taylor said of Wilkey. “She pitched a great game against Moscow (on Monday) and hit well that night and followed that up today. She just did everything great today and made some great plays at first base.”
Breana Burke hit a three-run homer in the third inning and Kylie Smith hit a two-run shot in the sixth for Coeur d’Alene, which visits Lewiston for a doubleheader on Friday to conclude the regular season.
“We needed those,” Taylor said of the home runs. “The emotions of clinching it took the wind out of our sails and you’ve got to find a different way to get going. And those home runs definitely picked us up.”
“It was a great ballgame,” Lake City coach Jesse Lenz said of the first game. “Another good, tough ballgame. I felt like we really battled, threw strikes and really battled. That’s a good softball team over there. It’s senior night, and they’ve got a lot of pride going and we got on them early. I couldn’t be more proud of my team.”
Burke struck out sixth in the second game for Coeur d’Alene.
Lake City pitcher Michaela Flerchinger struck out three in the first game before leaving with a hip injury. Reliever Ashley Kaufman was also hurt, leaving senior Heather Hawkes to pitch the second game.
“We’re not as healthy as we should be right now, and we’re battling through some injury bugs right now,” Lenz said. “I had a senior step in and pick up and do what we needed her to do. Injury got us there with AK and Hawkesy stepped up there and did what she needed to do.”
FIRST GAME
Lake City 201 010 0 — 4 7 2
Coeur d’Alene 012 110 x — 5 5 0
Michaela Flerchinger, Ashley Kaufman (4) and Reilly Williams; Breana Burke and Miranda Amos. W — Burke. L — Kaufman.
HITS: LC — Loffer 2, Hawkes, Williams, Cook, Cavanagh 2. Cd’A — Wilkey 2, Montee, Smith, Kane. 2B — Wilkey. 3B — Loffer. HR — Wilkey.
SECOND GAME
Lake City 100 100 0 — 2 9 3
Coeur d’Alene 203 033 x — 11 11 1
Heather Hawkes and Jalyssa Beamer; Breana Burke and Miranda Amos. W — Burke. L — Hawkes.
HITS: LC — Loffer 3, Hawkes 2, Cook, Beamer, Gray, Kaufman. Cd’A — Montee 2, Wilkey 3, Smith 2, Burke 2, Sell, Goucher. 2B — Kaufman, Wilkey, Sell. 3B — Goucher, Loffer. HR — Smith, Burke.
Post Falls 8-2
Lewiston 1-0
LEWISTON — Amanda Rouse struck out 10 and pitched a two-hitter in the opener, and the visiting Trojans went on to sweep the Bengals in 5A IEL play at Airport Park.
Rouse yielded an unearned run in the first game and threw a shutout in the nightcap, with eight strikeouts for Post Falls (11-9, 3-9 5A IEL).
Brooke Bowers went 3 for 4 and drove in a pair of runs in the opener for the Trojans. Abby Melton was 2 for 3 with two runs and two RBIs for Post Falls.
Casey Goleeke scored both runs in the second game for the Trojans. She walked and scored on Melton’s single in the fourth, then tripled and scored on a single by Bailey Gleaves in the sixth.
Lewiston dipped to 7-11, 1-9.
Post Falls wraps up the regular season on Thursday, hosting Sandpoint in a doubleheader.
FIRST GAME
Post Falls 204 002 0 — 8 10 3
Lewiston 000 001 0 — 1 2 4
Amanda Rouse and Allison Morris; Atwood and Carpenter.
HITS: PF — Goleeke, Gleaves 2, Melton 2, Bowers 3, Bowen, Morris. Lew — Benden, Burke. 2B — Morris, Bowers. 3B — Gleaves.
SECOND GAME
Post Falls 000 101 0 — 2 6 0
Lewiston 000 000 0 — 0 5 0
Amanda Rouse and Allison Morris; Rose and Carpenter.
HITS: PF — Goleeke, Gleaves, Melton, Bowers, Morris, Horn. Lew — Lawerence, Vaughns, Carpenter, Rose 2. 2B — Rose. 3B — Goleeke.
Bonners Ferry 6
Timberlake 2, 8 inn.
SPIRIT LAKE — The Tigers played the top seed in the Intermountain League to a 1-1 tie going into the top of the eighth and extra inning.
Then the Badgers struck immediately, as Jorryn Bennett smacked a two-RBI, go-ahead double for a 3-1 lead, as Bonners Ferry scored five runs on three hits and will be the No. 1 seed going into the District 3A tournament starting Monday at Bonners Ferry.
“They hit the ball and they had a lot of hits in that last inning,” Timberlake coach Casi Reisenauer said. “They capitalized on it. It was a good game up until that last inning.”
Maddie Salois hit a two-out RBI double that scored Matraca Rocheleau to cut Bonners’ lead to 6-2, but the Tigers (10-6, 6-3 IML) could not score again.
Bonners Ferry 100 000 05 — 6 14 1
Timberlake 000 010 01 — 2 4 2
Kadee Bateman and Jadyn Bennett; Brittany Hibdon and Matraca Rocheleau. W — Bateman. L — Hibdon.
HITS: BF — Sheen, Bateman 3, Jadyn Bennett 2, Golder, Blackmore 2, Coon 2, Lane, Jorryn Bennett 2. TL — Mallett, McGrath 2, Salois. 2B — Salois, Jorryn Bennett.