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The race to the finish is underway

| April 21, 2018 1:00 AM

Yes, it has been a weird spring for prep sports in this area.

Kudos for the area teams for making up for lost time in the last three days.

While some games might not get made up as scheduled, those that have been played have been quite entertaining.

WITH THE completion of baseball and softball doubleheaders between Lewiston and Lake City on Friday in Coeur d’Alene, those teams have finished their matchups against each other for the regular season. Amazing considering that some teams hadn’t played more than two games earlier in the week.

Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls softball are done, with baseball scheduled to do the same today — weather permitting.

“Coeur d’Alene is playing really well right now,” Lake City coach Paul Manzardo said. “(Coeur d’Alene coach) Nick (Mahin) has them playing good baseball. It’s going to be a dogfight the rest of the year.”

Keep in mind, Coeur d’Alene and Lake City, as well as Post Falls and Lewiston, have yet to play each other.

Not baseball, or softball.

Still Manzardo, who previously coached the North Idaho College baseball team from 1998 to 2002, when the program was cut, knows there’s some quality players roaming the north.

“There’s a lot of talent in North Idaho,” Manzardo said. “If I was a college recruiter, I’d be camped out watching these kids play. There’s good talent at all four schools.”

Timberlake’s baseball team took advantage of the nice weather to play a doubleheader at Priest River on Wednesday afternoon.

Then, it got a little tricky.

Timberlake, scheduled to host the Spartans, were the designated home team for both games.

“We were supposed to play last week, but moved them up there just to make sure we play them,” Timberlake coach Cameron Knigge said. “When we play them again (April 28 at Timberlake), they’ll get two home games on our field.”

The second game of Wednesday’s twinbill was a nonleague game.

“We just played another game just to get another in,” Knigge said. “Neither one of us had been on the field much, so we wanted to get another game in.”

Timberlake squeezed another doubleheader in against Kellogg on Thursday, then will visit Bonners Ferry today; again, weather permitting.

WHILE A lot of things need to still be sorted out, games in the 4A Inland Empire League between Moscow and Lakeland, as well as some others, there’s a good chance if it’s nice out, someone is going to be playing somewhere.

Even if it’s not that great outside, that’s fine.

Everyone is used to it now.

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 jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.