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No comeback this time for Post Falls

by Mark Nelke Sports Editor
| May 9, 2018 1:00 AM

photo

The Coeur d’Alene High School baseball team rushes out of the dugout to celebrate their 3-2 win to eliminate No. 1 seed Lake City. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)

POST FALLS — They rallied for the second straight day, but on Tuesday, a mid-game hiccup proved too much to overcome for the Post Falls Trojans.

The fourth-seeded Lewiston Bengals built a five-run lead in the fifth inning, just enough of a cushion to hold off the second-seeded Trojans 9-8 in the championship game of the 5A Region 1 baseball tournament at Post Falls High.

“We were focused early, and focused late, but in the middle innings we relaxed,” Post Falls coach Mick Zeller said. “Had some bad at-bats, not team at-bats like we’d been doing. We swing at a pitch when the base is stolen, which is one of our automatics. We swing at a 3-0 points, which we’re not even allowed to do unless I tell them. Things like that ... things just snowballed.”

Lewiston (13-12), which won its third regional title in four years, advances to state May 17-19 in Boise.

Post Falls (13-11) will play host to No. 3 seed Coeur d’Alene (14-10) on Thursday at 4 p.m. in a loser-out game. That winner advances to a Saturday play-in game at Lewiston.

Coeur d’Alene eliminated No. 1 seed Lake City (17-6) with a 3-2 win in eight innings Tuesday.

Post Falls, trying to win its first regional title since 2005, when the Trojans were in 4A, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on Brock Zeller’s two-run single off the second baseman’s glove.

Lewiston tied it in the second when Braden Ruddell hit a two-run double to left-center field and Dakota Lopez added an RBI single.

Chase Cripps, who went 3 for 3, drove in two runs and scored twice, put Post Falls ahead 4-3 with an RBI double to left-center in the second.

Chris Powell of Lewiston led off the third with a homer to tie it at 4. The Bengals took the lead in the fourth at 5-4 on an unearned run.

The game got away from Post Falls in the fifth. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Lewiston’s Blaise Stottlemyre and Kyle Van Boeyen made it 7-4. Ruddell’s bloop single to left made it 8-4, and a throwing error allowed another run to score, making it 9-4.

That proved to be enough for Lewiston, who followed up a 1-0 win at Lake City on Monday with another strong showing a day later.

“And we hadn’t (done that), at any point during the course of the season,” third-year Lewiston coach Davey Steele said. “We hadn’t won the first part of a doubleheader all year. So going into this, only playing a single game was a little nerve-wracking, because we aren’t very good at winning the first one.”

But Post Falls, which rallied with two in the bottom of the seventh, wasn’t finished. Tanner McCliment-Call’s sacrifice fly in the fifth made it 9-5.

In the sixth, Cripps and Jacob Rutherford drew bases-loaded walks, and it was 9-7. Another sac fly from McCliment-Call pulled the Trojans within a run.

Quin Bennett was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom of the seventh for Post Falls. Up stepped Brock Zeller, who already had three hits and two RBIs.

The lefty-swinging Zeller hit a screaming liner just left of the bag at first — right into the glove of left-handed Bengal first baseman Dawson Bonfield, who was just a few feet off the bag. Bennett, leaning on the hit, was just a few feet farther off the bag, and was easily doubled off by Bonfield.

Powell, who came on in relief in the sixth, struck out the final batter, and the Bengals celebrated near the first-base line.

“When I hit it, I was pretty pumped,” Brock Zeller said. “I thought, either he’s getting to third, or scoring. And then it went straight into his glove.”

“That was probably the hardest-hit ball Brock had all day,” Mick Zeller said. “If the guy’s wearing the glove on the other hand, it’s second and third. But ... ”

Lewiston totaled 13 hits, eight against Bennett in four-plus innings.

“Quin Bennett is a great pitcher; man, he shut us down every time we faced him last year,” Steele said. “But we put the ball in play, found some holes, and were able to get guys on.”

Lewiston 031 140 0 — 9 13 3

Post Falls 310 013 0 — 8 9 2

Bill Alspach, Connor Stamper (2), Tyson Wallace (6), Chris Powell (6) and Braden Ruddell; Quin Bennett, Austin Higgins (5) and Nate Buer. W — Stamper. L — Bennett. S — Powell.

HITS: Lew — Wallace 2, Powell 2, Stottlemyre 2, Van Boeyen, Ruddell 3, Lopez 3. PF — Buer, Cripps 3, Rutherford, Zeller, Vazquez. 2B — Stottlemyre, Van Boeyen, Buer, Cripps.

Coeur d’Alene 3, Lake City 2, 8 inn.: Levi Haen singled to score Caleb Beggerly with the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, pushing the third-seeded Vikings past the top-seeded Timberwolves in a 5A Region 1 tournament loser-out game at Lake City High.

Cody Davenport allowed two runs over six innings, both coming in the first inning, for Coeur d’Alene (14-10), which advances to face Post Falls in the second-place game on Thursday at 4 p.m. at Post Falls High. Lake City finishes 17-6.

“It was another great game,” Coeur d’Alene coach Nick Mahin said. “It was one of those games where it came down to each pitch. We competed, made some mistakes in the first inning, but Cody (Davenport) threw an absolute gem and made some great pitches when he needed to. It was good team baseball, and always feels better to win games like that.”

Zach Sensel and Bridger Rinaldi had RBI singles in the first inning for Lake City.

“It’s sad to come to an end,” Lake City coach Paul Manzardo said. “I’ve coached these kids for a long period of time, since they were 8-years old. It’s really sad. It was a good game. Both teams fought vigerously throughout the game, and we didn’t cash in our opportunities. Coeur d’Alene had a chance in the eighth and did. It was a really good high school baseball game.”

Coeur d’Alene 000 110 01 — 3 7 2

Lake City 200 000 00 — 2 7 0

Cody Davenport, Zach Mackimmie (7), Jayce Bailey (7) and Carter Friesz; Kodie Kolden, Zach Sensel (8) and Conner Conigliaro. W — Bailey. L — Sensel.

HITS: Cd’A — Bailey, Thompson, Dooley, Beggerly, Bunch, Haen, Alley. LC — Kolden 2, Manzardo 3, Sensel, Brum. 2B — Bailey, Thompson, Beggerly, Manzardo.