Lums beat Prairie for state berth

POST FALLS — When they needed the big hit, Conner Conigliaro stepped up at the plate.

With Coeur d’Alene clinging to a 4-3 lead with Prairie threatening in the seventh, he did it from behind the plate.

Simply, the Lake City High rising junior had a big day when his team needed it the most.

Conigliaro had three hits and four runs batted in to send the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen past the Prairie Cardinals 7-3 in a winner-to-state, loser-out game in the Class AA American Legion Area A (district) baseball tournament Friday afternoon at Post Falls High.

“At the plate, and behind the plate, he was there today,” first-year Coeur d’Alene coach Kevin Dunton said. “He caught a great game and threw guys out in key situations. For a sophomore, he’s really performing well right now. He’s our No. 4 hitter and our leader on the team. It’s very impressive what he’s doing now.”

Later, the Lumbermen fell to Lewis-Clark 4-2 in the championship game. Ryder Shoults drove in two runs for the Twins.

Coeur d’Alene (14-22) qualified for the state AA tournament for the 12th time in 13 years.

The tourney begins Wednesday at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. The Lumbermen will face the Area B (Boise-area) champion in the first game of the tournament. Lewis-Clark (32-9) will face the Area B runner-up in the second game at state.

“It’s good,” Conigliaro said. “We’re going to have a good time. We’re going to try our best and hopefully play the kind of baseball that we know we can. It just depends on the day, but if we show up ready to play, we should be pretty well set.”

Conigliaro opened the scoring on an RBI single to score Levi Haen in the first inning, then extended the Lums’ advantage to 3-1 on an RBI single in the seventh before his two-run single in the eighth capped the scoring.

“When they put up runs, it’s important for us to answer,” Conigliaro said. “We had some big hits and bunts to get guys over and then capitalized on them. It was nice to show them we can play better than we did yesterday (in a loss to Prairie) and now can do some damage at state.”

Coeur d’Alene finished fourth at state last year.

“It’s a good group of kids,” Dunton said. “I still don’t think we’ve played our best game yet. We’ve been up and down all year and trying to get these kids to play to their potential, and I don’t think they’ve done that yet. We’ve been inconsistent in some of the things we’ve done at the plate and in the field. We’re hoping to play better next week at state.”

Coeur d’Alene lost 9-2 to Prairie in the opening game at districts on Thursday.

“We talked about playing a good game and complete game,” Dunton said. “The fact that the games are 9 innings is a huge difference. We haven’t played many nine-inning games, and you can tell how things change in a hurry in those last two innings. We got behind and lost some of our intensity and today we kept going and pressed the issue. I think we got the key runs in the later part of the game, which was a big deal.”

Jacob Elliott cut the deficit to 4-3 in the top of the seventh on an RBI single for Prairie (13-19), which had the tying run thrown out trying to steal second base.

“We didn’t hit the ball really well and left a lot of guys on base,” Prairie coach Pat Call said. “I thought we pitched fine and Matt did enough to win on the mound. But our approach at the plate was not very good. We really didn’t produce anything. They got some key hits when they needed to. We seemed a little flat and should have taken care of business, and we didn’t.”

Preston Benson, who went 3 for 6 with two RBIs and a run scored in Prairie’s win on Thursday against Coeur d’Alene, was not allowed to play in the team’s final two games (Thursday night vs. Lewis-Clark and Friday vs. Coeur d’Alene) after officials deemed him ineligible due to not having his birth certificate on file.

“He didn’t have his birth certificate in the book, and to me it’s a little ridiculous on common sense stuff,” Call said. “He’s been in the program for four years, and they’ve checked his birth certificate four years and they know we’ve got it ordered, but they wouldn’t let him play. It sucked not having him in the middle of the lineup for something so trivial. Nobody’s trying to cheat anybody. I think it’s dumb, but they’ve checked it three times. They could have given us a break, and he could have helped, especially in this game.”

Lewis-Clark 4, Coeur d’Alene 2: Trailing 4-0 in the ninth, Matthew Gjevre and Riley Alley scored on a fielding error to cut the deficit in half, but stranded the tying run at first base against the Twins.

“We played well and got some really good pitching,” Dunton said. “We just left some guys on base. We swung the bats really well and I was happy with our effort after two long games. They made some plays, and that’s what good teams do.”

Jaden Phillips had three hits and an RBI for Lewis-Clark.

COEUR d’ALENE 7, PRAIRIE 3

Prairie 001 000 020 — 3 7 4

Coeur d’Alene 100 100 23x — 7 9 3

Matt Fleming, Jayden Triana (7) and Seth Villanpando; Justin Bates, Brett Stapleton (7) and Conner Conigliaro. W — Bates (4-2). L — Fleming.

HITS: Pra — Triana 2, Fleming, Buck, Cooke, Elliott, Villanpando. Cd’A — Bloom, Conigliaro 3, Haen 3, Wabs, Langley.

LEWIS-CLARK 4, COEUR d’ALENE 2

Coeur d’Alene 000 000 002 — 2 8 2

Lewis-Clark 110 110 00x — 4 8 1

Brady Thompson, Brett Keesee (8) and Conner Conigliaro; Wyatt Baldwin, Nate Savoaine (8), Cooper Kud (9) and Jackson Fuller. W — Baldwin. L — Thompson (1-6).

HITS: Cd’A — Alley, Gjevre 2, Haen, Keesee, Stapleton, Cunningham 2. L-C — Robinson, Phillips 3, Light, Adkinson 2, Shoults. 2B — Alley, Gjevre, Phillips.

CLASS AA AREA A

(district) TOURNAMENT

at Post Falls High

Thursday

Prairie 9, Coeur d’Alene 2

Lewis-Clark 20, Prairie 0, 7 inn.

Friday

Coeur d’Alene 7, Prairie 3 (winner to state, loser out)

Lewis-Clark 4, Coeur d’Alene 2 (championship, Lewis-Clark top seed to state)