Lums handle Northern Lakes for state berth
COEUR d’ALENE — Patience paid off in a big way for the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen on Sunday afternoon.
Now the waiting game begins again, this time for the start of the state class AA American Legion baseball tournament on Friday.
Quinn Conces, Marcus Manzardo and Jake Brown drove in two runs each for the Lums in a 13-1 win over the Northern Lakes Mountaineers in the Area A (district) championship game at Thorco Field, advancing to state starting Friday at Harris Field in Lewiston.
Coeur d’Alene (31-15-1) will face the third-place team from Area B (Boise area) in Friday’s first game at 10 a.m. Other times for the tournament have not been announced.
“It will be a team that we’ve faced this season,” said Coeur d’Alene coach Erik Karns, in his first season as coach. “Going down to the Boise Summer Classic last weekend, I think it will help.”
Coeur d’Alene will face either the Boise Gems or Boise Capitals in its state opener.
“We’ve seen those teams and are familiar with them,” Karns said. “I really like where we’re at right now.”
Coeur d’Alene, which won its first Area A title since 2015, did not compete at districts last year after folding its program in July due to low numbers. Most of this year’s AA roster came from the Single-A Lums along with Karns, who coached the team to a 39-17 record in 2018.
“These kids have been together a while,” Karns said. “They’ve got experience at state and really play well together.”
On Sunday, Coeur d’Alene jumped out to a 13-0 lead, allowing a late run on a throwing error to break up the shutout. “Our guys had really good approaches all the way through the game,” Karns said. “We were able to get some walks in that first inning, didn’t swing at anything outside our zone. We knew that if we were able to jump on them early, we’d build a lot of momentum.”
Northern Lakes, with players from Lakeland and Timberlake high schools, finished 16-30. After losing in the first round to Coeur d’Alene on Friday, the Mountaineers eliminated Lewis-Clark 8-4 and Prairie 3-2 on Saturday to advance to the championship game.
“Coming into the tournament, I told the kids we needed to get hot at the right time,” first-year Northern Lakes coach Tony Bevacqua said. “And we got hot. The best thing about these kids is that they battled the last two days. They just battled the entire time and didn’t give up. We hope this is a building block for something next year and the kids want to continue to be a part of it.”
“We knew not to underestimate that team because they were the hottest team in the tournament,” Karns said of Northern Lakes. “We knew we had to come out and have a good start to the game and play our style of baseball.”
Coeur d’Alene pitcher Alex Karns — the coach’s son — struck out six and allowed one hit, an infield single to Cam Harris in the third inning.
“I knew I was starting last night, so I was mentally preparing myself all day for this game,” Alex Karns said. “I just tried to get ahead in the count with my fastball and see where it went from there.”
“It was a little rough at the end, but he threw strikes,” Erik Karns said of Alex’s performance. “He really filled up the zone, and we played good defense behind him. Our pitching staff the entire year has been great. They’ve got a great job of throwing a lot of innings, throwing strikes and getting guys out.”
North. Lakes 000 01 — 1 1 1
Coeur d’Alene 814 0x — 13 13 3
Game called in 5th inning due to 10-run rule.
Cole Strietzel, Addison Balavage (1), Ray Knerr (3) and Nicholas Welch; Alex Karns and Landen Thompson. W — Karns. L — Strietzel.
HITS: NL — Harris. Cd’A — Conces, Manzardo, Thompson, Brown 3, Coppess 2, Scherr, Childers 2, Smith 2. 2B — Brown, Coppess.