A shining memory from an otherwise soggy spring
What do I remember most about the recently completed spring high school sports season?
- Snow kept teams off their fields for much of the early part of the season. Then after that, it rained. A lot.
- A fire-breathing tractor at Post Falls High allowed the state 5A softball tournament to continue.
- A senior kept her team’s season — and her high school career — alive with a swing for the ages.
IT WAS a surreal moment, seemingly coming from out of the blue.
Which is saying something, since there wasn’t much blue in the skies — mostly gray clouds and rain — as the state 5A, 4A and 3A softball tournaments unfolded in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls.
At the 5A tourney in Post Falls, Eagle and Lake City began their first-round game in what was then a double-elimination tournament.
But in the bottom of the second inning, with the game tied at 1, a steady rain got steadier, and play was suspended until the next day.
Who knew it would be just over 26 hours until Ashley Kaufman, who stepped into the box on Friday afternoon on one field, would step back into the box on another field as the game resumed, albeit under a new set of rules.
Because of the rain, tourney organizers on Saturday shortened the tournament to single-elimination.
That meant the loser between Lake City, which entered the tourney undefeated, and Eagle, which had won three of the last four state titles, was out; whereas under the normal format, the loser between the two Idaho softball heavyweights would have just have a longer road back to the title game.
Also, in an effort to complete the tourney on Saturday, games were shortened to five innings, though Lake City and Eagle were allowed to play all seven, since they had already started their game the day before.
THAT WOULD prove to benefit the Timberwolves, as it turned out.
Eagle took a 3-1 lead on a two-run homer in the top of the fifth, and Lake City still trailed by that score heading into the bottom of the seventh.
The T-Wolves had managed just two hits through six innings.
Junior Ashlynn Allen drew a full-count walk to lead off the bottom of the seventh. But the next batter popped to third, and the next one flew out to center field.
Up stepped Kaufman, she of the 26-hour at-bat, with Lake City’s season on the line.
The Central Washington volleyball signee had produced so many clutch kills as an outside hitter, and key strikeouts in the circle, over her four-year T-Wolf career.
But nothing would bring her to tears like what happened next.
The righty hitting Kaufman worked the count to 2-1, then hit a line drive to center field.
Lake City was on a record home run pace all season. But rather than the high-arcing bombs you see in major league baseball, most of the T-Wolves’ dingers were line drives that kept going and going ... until they cleared the fence.
That’s what AK did.
Her liner to center rose like a riseball, and kept sailing — until it cleared the center field fence for a game-tying homer.
“Oh my god!” someone in the Lake City dugout kept saying. “Oh my god!”
Lake City then won it in the eighth on an RBI single by Reilley Chapman.
“Oh my god!” someone in the Lake City rooting section said.
“I was originally thinking, get a base hit, a line drive, just get on base — just like we were taught by (head coach) Jesse (Lenz),” a teary-eyed Kaufman said moments after the dramatic blast. “It just happened, so I couldn’t be happier right now.”
A FEW minutes later, Lake City had to take the field again, this time against Mountain View of Meridian. The Mavericks took a 1-0 lead on a home run in the top of the fifth inning, and retired the Timberwolves in order in the bottom half to advance to the state championship game. There would be no second seventh-inning comeback by Lake City in this game, because, well, there was no seventh inning.
Just like that, Lake City had suffered its first loss and saw its season ended in one fell swoop.
THE WHOLE weekend was a little odd, from the rain delays to the shortening of the tournaments and the games. Heck, the real MVPs of the weekend were probably the field crew at Post Falls, which worked dumped bag after bag of Diamond-Dry onto the two fields, as well as those who got the fields at Ramsey Park, Coeur d’Alene High and Lake City High ready for play.
But nothing was a surreal as when a field burner showed up Saturday afternoon to help dry out one of the muddy fields at Post Falls High. All the fans migrated over to that field, many whipping out their cell phones to capture the moment via photo and/or video.
For nearly everyone, it was their first field burning. And it worked, as the field crew was able to get the field playable for the other first-round game that was rained out on Friday.
IT’S A shame that state baseball and state softball tournaments get the shaft if it rains, with shortened games and/or shortened brackets.
They don’t make football teams play Kansas tiebreakers instead of real games if it snows.
They don’t make basketball teams play jamboree-length games (two quarters instead of four) if the tourney is delayed for some reason.
They don’t make ...
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.