Lums split after longer-than-expected trip

BOISE — Playing sports can sometimes consist partly of games, partly of life experiences.

The Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen have encountered a little of both as part of the Boise Summer Classic American Legion baseball tournament.

Heading through Oregon on Wednesday en route to the tourney, the Lums’ team bus broke down outside Pendleton. The team waited some 2 1/2 hours before a school bus from nearby La Grande showed up to transport the squad into town. There, the Lums waited another 3 hours at a Walmart in La Grande for a replacement bus to arrive from Coeur d’Alene. That bus showed up around midnight, and the Lums drove into Boise, arriving around 3 a.m.

After a few hours of sleep, the team headed to the ballpark at Capital High on Thursday morning — and somehow managed to pull off a victory.

Kallen Langley led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Conner Conigliaro as Coeur d’Alene beat the Treasure Valley Stars of Ontario, Ore., 3-2 in their tourney opener.

“I was proud of the kids; no one complained,” Coeur d’Alene coach/bus driver Kevin Dunton said. “I think if you play long enough you’re going to have a broken-down bus story. The kids got theirs.”

Langley also scored the Lums’ first run, singling in the first inning and scoring on a Matthew Gjevre single.

Bennett Cunningham went 2 for 3 and singled and scored Cd’A’s second run in the fifth on Levi Haen’s single.

Later Thursday, Coeur d’Alene managed just two hits in a 7-0 loss to the Withnell Dodgers of Salem, Ore., at Centennial High.

“I think it caught up to us,” Dunton said.

Today at Borah High’s Wigle Field, Coeur d’Alene (12-13) plays the Mid-Valley Pawsox at 1:30 p.m. PDT and the Pocatello Runnin’ Rebels at 4:15.

LUMS 3, TREASURE VALLEY 2

T. Valley 000 001 1 — 2 6 1

Lums 100 010 1 — 3 9 1

2 out when winning run scored.

Cody Davenport and Hunter Wabs; Gerdes and Wagenmann. W — Davenport (3-2). L ­— Gerdes.

HITS: TV — Benear 2, Gerdes 2, Jerman, No. 14. Cd’A — Conigliaro, Cunningham 2, Gjevre, Haen, Thompson, Wabs, Langley 2.

DODGERS 7, LUMS 0

Lums 000 000 0 — 0 2 5

Dodgers 130 030 x — 7 8 3

Tanner Mueller, Brett Keesee (6) and Conner Conigliaro; Ruska and Bedoya. W — Ruska. L — Mueller (1-5).

HITS: Cd’A — Bates, Stapleton. Dod — Long 2, Culpepper, Ruska 3, Davidson 2. 2B — Ruska. 3B — Culpepper.