Soggy start
Lake City’s Abby Jankay beams with a wide smile as she heads back to the dugout after hitting a game tying home run against Eagle on Friday in the 5A State Softball tournament. The game continues today, 8 a.m., at Post Falls High School. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Lake City first baseman Olivia Zufelt fields a ground ball in a game against Eagle in the 5A State softball tournament Friday at Post Falls High School. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Maddie Fernimen of Coeur d’Alene eyes the pitch — as does on-deck hitter Alexis Blankenship — during the Vikings’ first-round game vs. Highland of Pocatello at the state 5A softball tournament Friday morning at Post Falls High. Catching for Highland is Taelor Boyer. MARK NELKE/Press
MARK NELKE/Press Volunteer grounds crew members, coaches and players helped empty bags of Diamond-Dry on the two softball fields at Post Falls High on Friday morning. Two games and part of a third in the state 5A tournament were played, before a steady rain forced play to be postponed until today.
POST FALLS — It had been three years since the Coeur d’Alene Vikings last qualified for state in softball — an eternity for a program which has won five state titles and been runner-up eight times since Idaho switched to fastpitch in 1995.
So on Friday morning, the Vikings weren’t about to let a little rain — OK, a LOT of rain — interfere with their return to the big stage of Idaho prep softball.
Coeur d’Alene pounded out 20 hits — including a 5-for-5 effort by junior shortstop and leadoff hitter Maddie Fernimen — and beat Highland of Pocatello 13-6 in a state 5A first-round game at Post Falls High.
“Honestly, it’s awesome,” said Vikings junior catcher Hailey Lyons, who went 4 for 5 and drove in four runs. “The opportunity to be here is awesome, and being able to play through the rain, and prove that we’ve got it is awesome.”
At least Coeur d’Alene (12-8) got in one game on a soggy opening day of the tournament.
Lake City (25-0), which started its game moments after the Vikings finished, only made it to the bottom of the second inning of its opener vs. Eagle (22-5), which has won eight state titles, before the game was stopped due to rain with the score tied at 1.
The teams are scheduled to resume their game today at 8 a.m., but the format has been shortened slightly — now once a team loses, it can’t play its way back into the championship round. Just like the state basketball and soccer brackets.
Mountain View defeated Rigby 13-3 in the only other 5A game completed Friday. Mountain View (25-3) will play the Lake City-Eagle winner in the semifinals at noon. Coeur d’Alene will play the winner between Rocky Mountain (17-10) and Centennial (15-12) at noon in the other semifinals.
Semifinal winners advance to the championship game at 4 p.m. Semifinal losers play for third place at 2; the fourth-place (consolation) game is also at 2.
Coeur d’Alene 13, Highland 6: The game was played under a mixture of rain (light) and rain (steady).
Lyons drove in a run with each of her hits — an RBI single in the first inning, a homer to right in the third, a run-scoring double in the fourth and an RBI single in the fifth.
Fernimen lined the first pitch of the game into center field for a base hit. She scored four runs.
Third baseman Halle Kane, one of just two seniors on the roster, went 4 for 5.
Most impressive was the fourth inning, which saw Coeur d’Alene open with seven straight hits — back-to-back doubles by Madie Cleave, an RBI single by Fernimen, RBI doubles by Alexis Blankenship and Lyons, an RBI single by Kane and a single by Mary Comack. Natalie Sell, who struck out six for the Vikings, followed with a sacrifice fly for a 9-4 lead.
In 2016, Coeur d’Alene finished third at state, losing to eventual champion Eagle in a semifinal game that was pushed back to Sunday and moved several hundred miles due to rain.
Since then ... the Vikings went 19-29 the last two seasons.
“It was difficult and frustrating,” Lyons said, “because we knew we could do this. But now that we’re able to finally do it (get to state), I don’t think we’re going to give up on it.”
Veronica Bosquez hit a two-run homer for Highland (22-5-1) in the third, and Tiauna Walker’s RBI single gave the Rams a short-lived 4-3 lead.
Coeur d’Alene 201 712 0 — 13 20 3
Highland 103 002 0 — 6 8 2
Natalie Sell and Hailey Lyons; Kayla Mauger, Shylee Main (4) and Taelor Boyer.
HITS: Cd’A — Fernimen 5, Blankenship 2, Lyons 4, Hane 4, Comack 2, Sell, Cleave, Burke. High — Frasure, Sanders, Bosquez, Mauger, Anderson, Walker 2, Glenn. 2B — Fernimen, Blankenship, Lyons, Cleave, Burke, Glenn. HR — Lyons, Bosquez.
Lake City 1, Eagle 1, susp., rain: Haylee Bryant reached on an error and scored on a wild pitch for Eagle in the top of the second.
Abby Jankay answered for Lake City in the bottom of the inning, smashing a homer over the right field fence.
But during the next batter, as rain continue to fall, umpires called for a rain delay. An hour later, tournament officials, groundskeepers, etc., met, and canceled play for the day.