Putting fans in the seats equals results

There’s something to be said about fan support and its effect on sporting events.

And there’s a good chance it played a part for the Lake City High wrestling team in Thursday’s afternoon’s romp of Lewiston.

IN AN effort to get more of a student presence at the match, the Timberwolves and Bengals agreed to move up the match to 3 p.m., instead of the usual start time of 7.

“We wanted to try and get some of the student body out to the match,” Lake City coach Corey Owen said. “We’d tried it a few years ago in the TerHark Cup (against Coeur d’Alene), and the kids really enjoyed it, so we contacted Lewiston and they agreed to it.”

What resulted, with a few more students in the crowd, was a 60-24 Lake City win, the first against a 5A Inland Empire League opponent in Owen’s 10 years as coach.

“It was a fun match to coach,” Owen said. “We didn’t quite have the amount of parents we usually have and that was too bad. But the kids wrestled really well and it was a great night all-around.”

SO THE Seattle Mariners swung and missed on another prized prospect.

Well, it happens.

And while it might have been great to add another Japanese superstar to the lineup, it won’t be the one it could have been.

With Shohei Ohtani announcing he plans to sign with Los Angeles Angels on Friday, it ended one of the most ambitious player searches that I’ve seen the team do in a long time.

Seattle was trading prospects to acquire more bonus money to add Ohtani, who can throw the ball just about as well as he can hit it. Adding him might have been what the team’s been lacking lately.

But it’s not going to happen.

Meanwhile, the Mariners have added Ryon Healy to fill a void at first base, traded for Dee Gordon — a move to free up more cash for Ohtani — then immediately told Gordon he will move from second base to center field. Late last month, they opted to re-sign Hisashi Iwakuma to a minor league deal with the hopes that he can regain his old form after being injured most of the 2017 season.

And you can say the same thing about most of the team’s pitching rotation.

The team’s top two starting pitchers, Felix Hernandez and James Paxton, were injured a lot more than healthy last year. Drew Smyly didn’t even see the field for the team after getting hurt in the World Baseball Classic. Having a guy like Ohtani, if only once a week might have solved at least some of those issues moving forward.

NOT THAT it makes much sense for them right now, or even at all, but it might be worth seeing if the team makes a run at Ichiro Suzuki.

He’s already proven he can hit at Safeco Field at a consistent basis, and could fill in almost anywhere in the outfield that the team might need.

And if they’re desperate enough, Ichiro could also give them a few innings out of the bullpen in relief if that’s truly what they’re looking for.

Judging by the last time Ichiro played at Safeco, getting an ovation each time he stepped up to hit, the energy was awesome to see.

Something the Mariners haven’t quite had in a few years.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at JECdAPress.