THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Close to putting it together

To be successful in a weird baseball season, you’ve got to take advantage of your opportunities when they present themselves.

Especially when you get a chance to see somebody other than your neighbors.

LATE IN the month of March, members of the Post Falls baseball team headed south to compete in Idaho Central Credit Union Spring Break Classic in the Meridian area, going 1-2-1.

After the tournament, Post Falls was 5-3-1.

Following a sweep at Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday, the Trojans now sit at 10-4-1 and 8-2 in Inland Empire League conference play.

The biggest difference as coach Mick Zeller described has been staying together.

On Wednesday, with Post Falls leading 4-1, Coeur d’Alene answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to 4-3. Neither team scored again after that.

“They’re a scrappy bunch,” Zeller said. “We’d get up big against Coeur d’Alene, and we’d have a bad inning. I just told them that I’ve coached teams that would have unraveled after that and lose. We’ve just been able to overcome that adversity, and it’s a big key for us.”

Post Falls, which plays at Sandpoint today, will be looking to avenge a 5-4 loss on March 16. On Wednesday, Zeller credited Spencer Zeller and CD Sharples with clutch hits in a 13-7 win over Coeur d’Alene.

“We’re starting to get the timely hits that we weren’t getting earlier in the season,” Zeller said. “Spencer had a two-run double with two outs,” Zeller said. “Sharples, he had a three-run double with two outs. We finally started to get some two-out hits that we didn’t get in some of our previous games.”

Lakeland, now 1-13 after being swept at Moscow on Wednesday.

Still, Hawks coach Jason Bradbury is optimistic his team will turn things around.

“It was really nice to see my team hit the ball hard up and down the lineup,” said Bradbury following Wednesday’s games. “Ultimately, it was our defense that let us down today. We had too many physical and mental errors. I feel like we are getting really close to putting it all together. We just have to keep learning and working hard every day.”

THE WEATHER wasn't quite as nice on April 15 as it had been in the week previously — as schools celebrated spring break — but a little rain didn't stop some schools from getting a game in.

Or snow.

"It kind of sprinkled during the game," Timberlake baseball coach Bill Rider said. "It kind of skirted around us all day, but we were able to get one in."

Timberlake, which opened the season at Orofino on March 13, had games at home against Sandpoint (March 18) and at St. Maries (March 23) postponed due to weather. Timberlake made up the St. Maries game on Tuesday, then faced the Lumberjacks again on Thursday.

"The hardest thing for us has just been getting the season started," Rider said. "It was just nice to get a game in."

Timberlake has been limited to playing nonleague games against Sandpoint and Lakeland this year with no Washington schools playing due to the pandemic. Also, with spring weather also being sometimes a little dicey ...

"Usually (Timberlake athletic director Tim) Cronnelly doesn't schedule a lot of nonleague games early in the season because we lose them due to weather," Rider said.

For the Tigers, Intermountain League began Friday, with doubleheaders only until the regular season finale on May 8 at Lakeland.

"We've got a bit of a gauntlet of playing all our league games in the next three weeks," Rider said. "We’ve got a lot of doubleheaders on Tuesday’s and Friday’s from here on out. Saturday’s are made for doubleheaders, but we’ve kind of gone away from that as a league.”

Considering where we were last year, if playing twice in a day is the worst thing that could happen, we’ll take it.

And enjoy whatever happens next.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.