STATE 5A SOFTBALL: Coeur d'Alene starts strong, then bows out in three

By MARK NELKE

Sports editor

COEUR d’ALENE — Seemingly quietly headed for a first-round loss on their home field, and the prospects of a long road back through the losers bracket, the Coeur d’Alene Vikings found some resolve in their final two at-bats.

Coeur d’Alene tied the game with a dramatic three-run rally in the bottom of the seventh inning, then pushed across the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth to beat the Thunder Ridge Titans of Idaho Falls 5-4 in the opener of the state 5A softball tournament at Larry Schwenke Field.

“I never lost faith in our team,” said Vikings senior shortstop Skylar Burke, whose fielder’s choice grounder in the eighth chased home the winning run. “We have gotten behind in games before, but I trust our bats and I trust our ability to rally and come together, and feed off each other and string some hits together. I never lost faith; even up to the last out, I knew we had a shot.”

However, the Vikings were unable to keep that momentum going the rest of the day.

Coeur d’Alene suffered a hard-fought 2-0 loss to Timberline of Boise in the second round at Coeur d’Alene High, then saw its season end with a 17-0 loss to Eagle at Lake City High.

“I’m proud of my girls for the season they gave us,” fourth-year Coeur d’Alene coach Bobbi Darretta said. “We weren’t supposed to be here. Everybody expected us to get third in our league, so the fact that we’re here has been amazing. Our girls have just worked really hard.”

Coeur d’Alene, at state for the first time since 2019 when the Vikings tied for third, finished 19-4.

Coeur d’Alene 5, Thunder Ridge 4, 8 inn.: Blanked until two out in the fifth inning, freshman Chloe Burke — Skylar’s sister — gave Coeur d’Alene a spark with a triple to left-center field. Skylar Burke’s fly ball to short right-center field was dropped, scoring Chloe and putting the Vikings on the board.

In the seventh, Coeur d’Alene was down to its final out before loading the bases. Matea Dorame’s infield single on a sharp ground ball to shortstop scored Chloe Burke and kept the bases loaded. Catherine Bakken grounded a sharp single just out of the reach of the shortstop, driving in two runs and tying the game.

In the eighth, with a runner starting the inning at second base via the international tiebreaker, Skylar Burke caught a lazy popup near second base and stepped on the bag for a double play.

In the bottom half of the inning, with Makiya McPhedran-Torres starting on second, Kristine Schmidt and Abby Moehring reached on bunt singles to load the bases with nobody out. Chloe Burke bounced to the shortstop, who threw home for the forceout.

Skylar Burke stepped up and hit a sharp grounder to the second baseman’s left, and the Thunder Ridge fielder fielded the ball, but was unable to throw home in time as Schmidt scored the winning run.

After hitting fly balls in her previous two at-bats, Skylar Burke said she just wanted to put a ball into play with the game on the line.

“I wrote on my (left) wrist, WWKD — What Would Kobe Do?,” Skylar said. “He’s been one of my mentors. That was my thought during the whole game — what would Kobe do? In that moment, Kobe would be clutch, so that’s what I was thinking about.”

Thunder Ridge had to turn right around and play a loser-out game and was unable to recover, losing to Capital of Boise 6-1 to finish 17-11.

Timberline 2, Coeur d’Alene 0: In a pitchers duel where neither team had a hit until the bottom of the fourth, the Vikings managed just one hit off Boise State commit Amber Thornton, who struck out 11.

Delaney Gosch had the first hit of the game, a two-out double over the left fielder for Coeur d’Alene.

Kim Wicker’s ground single into right field in the top of the fifth was Timberline’s first hit. The Wolves loaded the bases and scored the game’s first run on an error.

Ashlyn Graklanoff’s RBI single in the top of the seventh gave Timberline an insurance run.

“We have a dominant pitcher, but so do they,” fourth-year Timberline coach Todd Amunson said. “Double-0 (Kristine Schmidt) is a stud. She threw a great game. One little mistake got us to 1, and obvious we were able to push across that run in the seventh, which was huge insurance.

Those are two great pitchers; well-played game. Their shortstop (Skylar Burke) made incredible defensive plays. There were some balls I thought were going to work out in our favor, and she took it away.”

Timberline (23-7) will play Owyhee (22-7), a first-year school in Meridian in the semifinal game today at 10 a.m. at Coeur d’Alene High. Owyhee upset top-seeded and defending champion Skyview of Nampa in the second round.

“To be honest, in our league, the top six, seven (teams) was tough,” Amunson said. “Anybody can beat anybody, yes.”

Eagle 17, Coeur d’Alene 0: Sydney Groves led off the game with a home run for the Mustangs (18-10), and Grace Hein added a two-run shot later in the inning.

Junior Lizzy Tommasini struck out seven and allowed three hits, and also went 4 for 4 with three RBIs.

Darretta praised Eagle for overpowering Coeur d’Alene at the plate, and said the tough loss to Timberline was too much to come back from.

“They gave everything they had in that game, especially our pitcher, and it just didn’t work out for us,” Darretta said. “I think we knew if we kept winning, we needed to have that two games a day, for that one pitcher that we’ve used … just too many pitches for someone. Kristine threw over 300 pitches today.”

COEUR d’ALENE 5, THUNDER RIDGE 4, 8 INN.

Thunder Ridge 301 100 00 — 4 7 2

Coeur d’Alene 000 010 31 — 5 10 2

1 out when winning run scored.

Kaliann Scoresby and Trynly Haack; Kristine Schmidt and Delaney Gosch.

HITS: TR — Scoresby 2, Weaver, Jones, Haack 2, Wright. Cd’A — S. Burke, Dorame 2, Bakken 3, Schmidt, Moehring, C. Burke 2. 2B — Scoresby. 3B — Scoresby, C. Burke.

TIMBERLINE 2, COEUR d’ALENE 0

Timberline 000 010 1 — 2 6 0

Coeur d’Alene 000 000 0 — 0 1 4

Amber Thornton and unknown; Kristine Schmidt and Delaney Gosch.

HITS: TL — Graklanoff, Lewchenko, Wicker 2, Coleman, Casch. Cd’A — Gosch. 2B — Gosch.

EAGLE 17, COEUR d’ALENE 0

Eagle 522 71 — 17 14 1

Coeur d’Alene 000 00 — 0 3 6

Game called after 5 innings due to 10-run rule.

Lizzy Tommasini and Emry Woods, Aubrynn Rust; Kristine Schmidt; Matea Dorame (4) and Delaney Gosch.

HITS: Eagle — Groves, Vieira 2, Tommasini 4, Rust, Dennis, Hein 2, Denton, Manzer, Egan. Cd’A — Blankenship 2, Gosch. 2B — Denton, Tommasini, Dennis. 3B — Vieira. HR — Hein, Groves.