PREP SOFTBALL: Vikings settle for third

MERIDIAN — Three days, four states, three fields and some 1,200 miles later, the Coeur d’Alene High softball team returned home Sunday night with a third-place trophy from the state 5A softball tournament.

As well as a somewhat hollow feeling.

Coeur d’Alene lost to Eagle, ranked No. 1 in the CBS MaxPreps Xcellent 25 rankings, 1-0 in eight innings in the completion of a semifinal game Sunday morning at Mountain View High. Since the losers bracket had been canceled due to weather, there was no avenue for the Vikings to get another shot at the defending state champs. Tourney organizers did create a third-place game between semifinal losers, and Coeur d’Alene came back after that tough loss to beat Boise 7-4, and finished 25-2.

“It was a pretty big bummer, because we felt that was the state title game for us, playing against Eagle,” Coeur d’Alene senior catcher Miranda Amos said. “It was hard to lose to them and knowing there was no way of having redemption from that game.”

The tournament started with eight teams playing Friday at Bonneville High in Idaho Falls. But rain and lightning affected the schedule. Coeur d’Alene and Eagle began their second-round game Friday evening, and played four scoreless innings before being stopped by the weather.

Rain on Saturday forced the tournament to be moved to Blackfoot, some 25 miles away, and organizers canceled the losers bracket, sending Lake City home prematurely. No games were played Saturday, and the tourney was moved to Meridian on Sunday, to be completed by the four teams in the winners bracket — Coeur d’Alene, Eagle, Rocky Mountain and Boise — playing what amounted to de facto semifinal games.

Some 40 hours and hundreds of miles later, Coeur d’Alene and Eagle resumed their game in the top of the fifth — as did Rocky and Boise on an adjacent field — with Coeur d’Alene’s UNLV-bound Breana Burke and Eagle’s Cal-bound Bradie Fillmore continuing their pitchers duel.

The Vikings and Mustangs were scoreless through seven, and the international tiebreaker rule went into effect. Eagle opened the eighth with Kate Kukla, a pinch runner, at second base. Autumn Moffat, a junior who has committed to BYU, grounded sharply up the middle for a single, and the speedy Kukla raced home easily. Burke retired the next three batters, but the damage was done.

The Vikings started the bottom of the eighth with Ashley Fernimen on second base. Amos walked, but the next two batters were unable to get bunts down and the third batter grounded out sharply to second base to end the game.

“It was a tough loss. It hurt bad, no one’s going to disguise that, to be that close,” Taylor said. “Bre threw a masterpiece, got out of every situation. They needed to put a runner on second to score on her.”

Fillmore pitched a two-hitter with 15 strikeouts.

“She locates, she throws hard, and her riseball, she gets you to chase it,” Taylor said. “Most of her strikeouts were on the riseball. But we’re a good hitting team. I thought if Bre could hold them to one or two we would win, but you have to give the credit to Bradie.”

Burke fanned eight and walked four, but some were by design.

“Her and (Viking pitching coach) Jenna Fore (the former Jenna DeLong) had a great plan; they weren’t going to give in to any of those great hitters,” Taylor said. “Their lineup is loaded; 2 to 6 are a home run waiting to happen, and the rest of them have good power, too.”

Eagle went on to beat Rocky Mountain 5-2 in the championship game to finish 29-0. Rocky (21-7) defeated Boise in the other semi.

Against Boise (18-11), Burke struck out eight and hit a pair of home runs — a two-run shot in the first inning and a solo homer in the third — and Jane Wilkey was 3 for 3 with an RBI single in the fifth, and a run scored.

“It (the third-place game) seemed so meaningless,” Taylor said. “But I’m pretty proud of them, they took care of business, got the win. Bre took out some of her anger on the ball.”

Eagle beat Coeur d’Alene in last year’s state title game.

“We worked hard all season for that (another shot at Eagle),” Amos said. “We put our best effort in, we found ways to get on, just couldn’t find ways to execute in the long run.

“Bouncing back, that was a little difficult. Falling short, and not having the opportunity to come back (through the losers bracket) was a little rough, but we decicied we had to finish the season strong.”

Taylor, who took over from longtime head coach Larry Bieber this season (Bieber remained on staff as an assistant), tried to put things in perspective.

“When you stand back from the whole season, we were 25-2, and lost to the No. 1 team in the nation in the eighth inning on the tiebreaker rule, it’s a heckuva season,” Taylor said. “Some people thought it was better, that we only had to beat them once. But I think if we could have gone again, we could have given them a game again.”

EAGLE 1, COEUR d’ALENE 0

Eagle 000 000 01 — 1 8 0

Coeur d’Alene 000 000 00 — 0 2 0

Bradie Fillmore and Rachel Menlove; Breana Burke and Miranda Amos. W — Fillmore. L — Burke (22-2).

HITS: Eagle — Kukla, Foster, Fillmore, M. Tooley, Moffat 3, Strickler. Cd’A — Montee, Donovan. 2B — Fillmore.

COEUR d’ALENE 7, BOISE 4

Boise 000 004 0 — 4 6 0

Coeur d’Alene 303 010 x — 7 8 1

Eden Cook and Ambryn Fortier; Breana Burke and Miranda Amos. W — Burke (23-2). L — Cook.

HITS: Boise — T. Cook, Butler, Ed. Cook, Shimatsu, Fortier 2. Cd’A — Donovan, Smith, Burke 2, Wilkey 3, Kane. 2B — Donovan, Fortier. HR — Fortier, Burke 2 (6).