STATE 5A BASEBALL: Vikings edged by Rocky in opener

CALDWELL — In preparation for seeing Rocky Mountain High senior right-hander Jacob Hughes, who has signed with Oregon, Coeur d’Alene tried to simulate his velocity at practices leading into Thursday’s state 5A baseball opening round game.

And it was almost enough in the Vikings’ first trip to state since 2017.

Coeur d’Alene scored three runs in five innings against Hughes, who had 12 strikeouts in the Grizzlies’ 5-4 win over Coeur d’Alene 5-4 in an opening round game at Wolfe Field.

“He was good,” Karns said of Hughes. “He’s a Pac-12 arm and can throw in the upper 80s. But we had seven hits off of him and put the bat on the ball really well. I was proud of the way our kids responded. To put up the runs and hits we did offensively, we did really well against a high quality arm.”

Rocky Mountain took advantage of a throwing error by Coeur d’Alene in the top of the fourth inning to extend the lead to 4-2. Coeur d’Alene had the tying run on second base with one out in the fifth, but was unable to push the tying run across.

“Those were two situations in the game that made the biggest difference,” Karns said. “Rocky hit a soft ground ball and was able to score two runs on an infield grounder. With a young infield, when that happens and you don’t have a chance at a double play, you’ve got to fake it and get that runner back to third. Not getting a run across in the fifth also turned out to be a big moment as well.”

Liam Paddack had three hits and two RBIs for Coeur d’Alene (14-8), which faces Highland (18-10) of Pocatello in a loser-out game today at noon. Highland lost 15-7 to Eagle and the two 5A semifinal matchups will be all-5A Southern Idaho Conference matchups.

Alex Karns and Evan Mallory each tripled for Coeur d’Alene, which left seven runners on base.

Paddack singled to score Ryan Schneider in the seventh to pull Coeur d’Alene within a run.

Hughes had two hits and two RBIs for Rocky Mountain (22-5).

“Rocky’s a high quality team,” Erik Karns said. “They’ve got good bats in their lineup and hit the ball really well. I knew we’d be able to stay in it with the kids we have. For us to battle the way we did, against a pitcher like that, I was really pleased with our at-bats.”

Rocky Mountain 002 201 0 — 5 10 2

Coeur d’Alene 001 110 1 — 4 9 2

Jacob Hughes, Peyton Hines (6) and unknown; Alex Karns, Troy Shepard (6), Ryan Schneider (7) and Wade Mallory. W — Hughes. L — Shepard.

HITS: RM — Rundell 2, Hughes 2, Douglas 2, Lewis, Hines, Rohlmeier, Bengoechea. Cd’A — Larson, Schneider, Al. Karns 2, Paddack 3, Elstad, E. Mallory. 2B — Douglas. 3B — Bengoechea, Al. Karns, E. Mallory.