STATE 5A BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: Lake City rejoices

BOISE — Lake City’s pitching and defense dominated the 5A state high school baseball tournament. And the Timberwolves used more of the same Saturday to end their eight-year state championship drought with a 4-1 win over Meridian at Boise’s Memorial Stadium.

“It’s tremendous,” Lake City (19-8) coach Paul Manzardo said. “I’m so tickled to death for these seniors who have given their hearts and souls to Lake City High School for four years, and finally all of that hard work paid off for them. Taking this trophy back to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, it means a whole lot.”

Lake City (19-8) won its second state title in school history, and first since 2007. Boise-area teams had won the title every year since them. Lake City also played for the state title in 2004 and ’08.

“It’s real nice boost for the north,” Manzardo said of the title. “It says a little bit about our league too. Our league, which a lot of people don’t realize, it was a solid league one through four. It was a battle up there every game.”

Sophomore Kodie Kolden followed Dominic Conigliaro and Cody Garza to deliver another gem on the mound for the Timberwolves. Conigliaro opened the tournament by holding Timberline, the Southern Idaho Conference’s top offense, to two runs, and Garza followed with a seven-hit shutout of Highland in the semifinals.

Kolden held Meridian (18-13) to one unearned run on seven hits.

“It (the state title) means a lot because we’re all really close and a tightly-packed group of kids. Nothing really shakes us. We’re really mentally tough.”

“He’s been in big games before,” Manzardo said of Kolden. “He pitched tremendous. He pounded the zone and kept hitters off balance. But our strength is our defense, and our defense played outstanding. Bennett Cunningham and Tanner Criswell were tracking down everything in the outfield. If some of those balls get down, it could be a different game.”

“I don’t think there was a big talent discrepancy, if any, between the two teams,” Meridian coach Rod Williams said. “It was anybody’s game. Tip your hat to them. They made great plays.”

Third baseman Kyle Manzardo snared a rocket line drive out of the air in the third inning. Left fielder Bennett Cunningham made a full-extension, backhanded catch in the fourth, and center fielder Tanner Criswell’s sliding catch in the seventh inning kept Meridian’s final rally from getting on track.

“Balls don’t fall in our outfield,” Kolden said.

Lake City took early control as Meridian starting pitcher Jared Watts struggled with his command, walking four in the first inning. A Conigliaro RBI single and a Criswell two-run single spotted the Timberwolves a 3-0 lead they never surrendered.

Meridian mounted one last threat when Brandon Macho led off the top of the seventh with a double over Criswell’s head in center field. But when he tried to take home on a wild pitch, Lake City catcher Grant Wade fired to a covering Kolden for the game’s final out, setting off a dogpile in the Memorial Stadium infield.

“I honestly just wanted to dogpile,” Kolden said. “I wanted to get the ring.”

Manzardo took over as coach this season after Travis Georgius, who resigned after three seasons in order to take classes toward a masters in education. Georgius teaches biology and astronomy at Lake City.

“We have quite a few seniors and they’ve played a lot of baseball games growing up.” Manzardo said. “It’s a game of momentum so you’ve got to keep telling yourself to stay calm and relax, one pitch at a time, one out at a time and try to grind it out. We grinded it out, and Grant gave a good feed back to Kodie to end the game at home plate, and the rest is history.”

Meridian 000 001 0 — 1 7 1

Lake City 300 010 x — 4 8 1

Jared Watts, Jacob Herberger (4) and Talon Kreft; Kodie Kolden and Grant Wade. W — Kolden. L — Watts.

HITS: Mer — Simson, Kreft, Hanneman, Hollingsworth, Macho 2, Stark-Kenison. LC — Garza, Conigliaro 2, Hall, Criswell 3, Stapleton. 2B — Macho.