Miscues doom Vikings

COEUR d’ALENE — Hits and runs and strong pitching has been the trademark of the Coeur d’Alene High baseball team this season.

But on Tuesday, the Vikings were done in by errors, walks, hit batsmen and sacrifice flies.

The Lewiston Bengals broke a tie with two runs in the top of the seventh inning — without benefit of a hit — and beat Coeur d’Alene 7-5 in the championship game of the 5A Region 1 tournament at Ted Page Field.

That came one inning after the Bengals scored four runs — on just one hit, taking advantage of two Viking errors — to take a 5-4 lead after trailing 4-0 after four innings.

“To go through this league undefeated (12-0 in the 5A Inland Empire League) is not an easy thing,” Coeur d’Alene coach Nick Mahin said. “But with our league, and the way it’s set up, you have to take care of business in two games at districts, and unfortunately, everything was going well until the fifth inning, and that inning got away from us a little bit.”

Lewiston (13-7) advances to state May 16-18 at Memorial Stadium in Boise, and will open vs. the third-place team from District 3.

Coeur d’Alene (21-2), which saw its 17-game winning streak snapped, will play host to Lake City (8-12) on Thursday at 4 p.m. in a loser-out game. The winner advances to a state play-in game Saturday.

Lake City eliminated Post Falls with a 4-1 victory.

Coeur d’Alene jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third inning. Noah Mayfield hit a two-run triple down the right field line, and Quinton Bunch followed with an RBI single. Carter Friesz, who survived a nasty collision with Mayfield while catching a foul popup to end the top of the inning, delivered an RBI single to make it 4-0.

“The fifth inning really hurt us,” Mahin said. “Couple errors, a few walks, little dinkers. Baseball’s a funny game. This is a good league, and we had a good run, but unfortunately at the end we stopped taking care of the baseball, and it came back and bit us. But the good news is, we get to play another day.”

Lewiston got a run back in the fifth on a throwing error by the Vikings.

In the sixth, the first two Bengals batters reached on errors. A wild pitch moved them up to second and third, and Blaine Acree’s bloop single to center drove in a run.

A hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, and leadoff hitter Tyson Wallace drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in a run and pull Lewiston within 4-3.

Trayton Skinner hit a sharp grounder up the middle and into center field — just past diving Coeur d’Alene shortstop Quinton Bunch — to chase home two runs and give Lewiston the lead.

“We’ve had one big inning in us every game,” Lewiston coach Davey Steele said. “We got the one back, and then after that ... gosh, it’s all a blur at this point. (Kyle) Van Boeyen threw a heckuva game. That seventh inning got a little interesting ... but, they had 17 straight wins. They beat us four straight times. This is a pretty big win for this group.”

Friesz doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game. Coeur d’Alene had a runner on second and nobody out, but Van Boeyen retired the next three batters.

In the seventh, Van Boeyen was hit by a pitch and Dawson Bonfield walked, and Viking starting pitcher Zach Mackimmie was replaced by Alex Karns. Connor Stamper walked to load the bases. Blaise Stottlemyre, who replaced the designated hitter in the sixth, hit a sacrifice fly to center to break the tie. A hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, and DJ Ricard, the No. 8 hitter, delivered a sacrifice fly.

“We had the ‘take until you get a strike’ on starting in the fifth inning, to try to eat some of Mackimmie’s pitches,” Steele said. “I think that helped; maybe he got flustered a little after a couple of walks, and then two big sacrifice flies in that seventh inning.”

Steele brought in Wallace in the bottom of the seventh, and he opened with seven straight balls. He walked Jake Brown and Allen Chatfield, but struck out the next two batters on curveballs. Friesz lifted a liner up the middle, but it carried to the center fielder for the final out.

All told, Viking pitchers walked six and hit three. Lewiston hit four Vikings.

“This game has a funny way of making you pay, if you don’t take care of the small things,” Mahin said. “We’d been really good at playing defense and pitching, and unfortunately one inning can hurt you, and it certainly did.”

Lewiston 000 014 2 — 7 6 0

Coeur d’Alene 004 001 0 — 5 5 3

Kyle Van Boeyen, Tyson Wallace (7) and Connor Stamper; Zach Mackimmie, Alex Karns (6) and Carter Friesz. W — Van Boeyen. L — Mackimmie. S — Wallace.

HITS: Lew — Wallace, Skinner 2, Van Boeyen, Acree, Lopez. Cd’A — Brown, Mayfield, Bunch, Friesz 2. 2B — Van Boeyen, Bunch, Friesz. 3B — Mayfield.

Lake City 4, Post Falls 1: Bridger Rinaldi struck out six and allowed four hits as the Timberwolves eliminated the fourth-seeded Trojans in a loser-out game at Lake City High.

“Bridger had a really solid performance on the mound,” Lake City coach Paul Manzardo said. “He really did a good job of keeping them off balance and pitched a really good game. He didn’t really give Post Falls much to work with.”

Lake City (8-12) travels to Coeur d’Alene in the regional second-place game on Thursday at 4 p.m.

Post Falls, which finished third at state last year, finishes 6-15.

Post Falls 000 100 0 — 1 4 1

Lake City 012 100 x — 4 6 1

Tyson Rutherford, Austin Higgins (5) and Derek Pearse; Bridger Rinaldi and Brock Sween. W — Rinaldi. L — T. Rutherford.

HITS: PF — Cripps, J. Rutherford 2, Burton. LC — Manzardo, Childers, Rinaldi, Smith, Brum, Coppess. 2B — Cripps, Burton. 3B — Childers.