Prairie, Lewis-Clark square off for state berth today

LEWISTON — After two games on Friday at the class AA Area A (district) tournament, it has come down to this:

The winner of today’s 11 a.m. game at Harris Field between the Prairie Cardinals and the Lewis-Clark Twins will advance to state starting next Friday at Stampede Park in Nampa.

The loser is done for the season.

The teams split their two games on Friday, Lewis-Clark taking the opener 9-1 and Prairie coming back to win the second game 8-7. A sweep by either team would have sent that squad to state.

With the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen pulling the plug on their season prior to districts, the tourney was reduced to a two-team, best-of-3-game affair for Area A’s lone berth to state.

Brock Zeller went 3 for 5, drove in three runs and scored once in the second game for Prairie (8-24). Zac Pollard’s sacrifice fly broke a 4-all tie and triggered a four-run sixth. Zeller hit an RBI single in the third and a two-run single in the fourth.

Coy Stout hit a two-run homer in the sixth to pull Lewis-Clark (14-19) within 8-7.

With the tying run at third and two out in the bottom of the seventh, Zeller induced a popup to end the game.

In the first game, Lewis-Clark scored on a passed ball in the fifth inning to snap a 1-all tie, then scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break it open. Stout’s three-run homer capped the uprising for the Twins.

Tanner McCliment-Call went 3 for 4 for Prairie in the first game.

LEWIS-CLARK 9, PRAIRIE 1

Prairie 000 100 0 — 1 6 0

Lewis-Clark 010 017 x — 9 13 1

Matt Fleming, Seth Villanpando (6), Paul Keating (6) and Derek Pearse; Spencer Schumacher, Terin Judy (7) and Nate Savolainen.

HITS: Pra — Villanpando, McCliment-Call 3, S. Zeller, Davidson. L-C — Powell 2, Woods, Phillips, Stout 2, Bonfield 2, Savolainen 2, Beckman, Skinner, Lopez. 2B — Savolainen 2, Skinner. 3B — Powell. HR — Stout.

PRAIRIE 8, LEWIS-CLARK 7

Prairie 002 204 0 — 8 7 1

Lewis-Clark 012 013 0 — 7 10 1

Brock Zeller and Seth Villanpando; Copper Lund, Hayden Woods (6) and Austin Kolb.

HITS: Pra — B. Zeller 3, Fleming, S. Zeller, Vandever, Pollard. L-C — Powell 2, Phillips, Stout 2, Bonfield, Savolainen, Alspach 3. 2B — Powell 2, Phillips, Alspach 2. HR — Stout.

Lums ‘A’ 8

Orofino 7

SANDPOINT — Alex Karns, Wade Mallory and Breyson Coppess each drove in two runs as the top-seeded Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen edged the fifth-seeded Orofino Merchants on the first day of the class A Area A (district) tournament at War Memorial Field.

Karns delivered a two-run single in a three-run first inning for Coeur d’Alene. Jackson Scherr hit an RBI double in the first to open the scoring.

After Orofino scored twice and loaded the bases with two out in the top of the seventh, Jake Brown retired the next batter to end the game.

Brayden Turcott went 5 for 5 for Orofino.

Coeur d’Alene (33-14) takes on the host and No. 2 seed North Idaho Lakers today at noon. The winner advances to the championship game game Sunday at noon, where they must be beaten twice.

Orofino faces No. 3 Moscow at 2:30 in a loser-out game. That winner plays the Cd’A-North Idaho loser at 5 in a loser-out game.

Only the district champion from the double-elimination tourney advances to state in Lewiston in two weeks. The Lewis-Clark Cubs, who were eliminated from district play Friday, have an automatic berth to state as tourney host. St. Maries was also eliminated on Friday.

Northern Lakes 13

Mt. Spokane 6

SPOKANE VALLEY — Sean Tierney went 3 for 5 with two RBIs as the No. 5-seeded Mountaineers beat top-seeded Mt. Spokane in the semifinals in the Washington class A district tournament at University High.

Northern Lakes (20-15), which won its 11th straight game, will play second-seeded Sandpoint today at 11:15 a.m. at U-Hi in the championship game. Both teams have already qualified for the state tournament next weekend in the Seattle area.

Caleb Jacobsen’s RBI Texas Leaguer drove in a run and capped a six-run top of the first inning for Northern Lakes. Payden Wysong drove in two runs for the Mountaineers.

After Mt. Spokane closed within 8-4 after four innings, Northern Lakes answered with five runs in the top of the fifth.

Josh Brown pitched two scoreless innings to finish off the win for the Mountaineers.