A fishy kind of fight to the finish

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Coeur d’Alene and Lake City High are among the top teams in the state in the sport of softball this year.

They’ve had quite the run near the top in recent years.

ON TUESDAY afternoon, there’s a good chance that either Coeur d’Alene or Lake City will punch a ticket to the state 5A tournament May 20-21 at Bonneville High in Idaho Falls as the 5A Region 1 tournament unfolds that day.

In the opening round, Coeur d’Alene will host Lewiston and Lake City will face Post Falls at Canfield Middle School at 2 p.m.

Those winners will advance to the regional championship game later in the day, likely at Coeur d’Alene High at 4.

Of note, Lake City has only lost six games this season, four coming to Coeur d’Alene in league play.

“Lake City keeps getting closer and closer to us,” first-year Coeur d’Alene High coach Darren Taylor said. “And that’s probably who we’ll play in the big game, you’d think. You never know, but we’ve got to continue to play well on Tuesday and find our way to state.”

Coeur d’Alene is 20-0 after sweeping at Lewiston for its regular season finale on Friday.

Tuesday’s title-game loser will host the regional second-place game, with that winner advancing to a state play-in game next Saturday.

Taylor coached Lake City to a state 5A title in 2001.

Lake City advanced to state last year after winning a play-in game, finishing fourth after losing to Coeur d’Alene. The Vikings went on to finish as runner-up after losing to Eagle in the championship game. Since 2011, either Lake City or Coeur d’Alene has advanced to the state championship game, with Lake City winning in 2011 and 2013. Coeur d’Alene beat Lake City in 2012, and also finished runner-up in 2014 to Mountain View.

“We’re excited for the playoffs coming up,” second-year Lake City coach Jesse Lenz said. “We’ll see where we’re at. We’ve got some things to clean up.”

Lake City went 3-1 in an early season tournament in Nampa, beating Ontario, Pocatello and Homedale. The Timberwolves’ other losses came against Richland (Wash.) and Meridian, which finished 1-2 at last year’s state tournament in Post Falls.

“We had a great first half of the season,” Lenz said. “But everyone plays for the second half. We’ll see what my girls can do. They’ll respond and I’m proud of them and how they’ve played this season.”

Even though they’ve played well, Lenz knows the work is far from over.

“We’re confident, and I’ve never worked with a club that’s been so quiet,” Lenz said. “Quiet and confident. And I like it. They’re not cocky, they’re not out there to show anyone up. They just do their job and that’s all I ask. They cleaned up the mistakes and we’ve got a few more to clean up. We’re feeling OK, and we like our spot right now. Post Falls and Lewiston battled us. They’re both improved teams and they’re battling us too. Next week, it’s going to be a lot of fun softball.”

THAT CONFIDENCE extends over to the baseball teams in the 5A Inland Empire League, with the top three teams (Coeur d’Alene, Lake City, Lewiston) each owning a win against each other at some point during the regular season. Post Falls was swept twice by Lewiston in league play this season, but beat both Lake City and Coeur d’Alene.

“We’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us,” first-year Coeur d’Alene coach Nick Mahin said.

“We know we can beat anybody if we play our kind of baseball,” Lake City senior first baseman/pitcher Dominic Conigliaro said. “If we can do that and not shrink down to their level or let them get in our head, we should be OK. We just need to make sure we can play the way we know we can.”

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 jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.