THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: The tests will come for prep baseball teams, rain or shine

Sure, there’s a break in the action right now.

But don’t think for a second that area coaches aren’t champing at the bit to get back on the field starting Monday.

Or sooner, in the case of the Post Falls High baseball team.

NOT THE fault of the Trojans, at least they tried to play Sandpoint to open the season on March 18 in Post Falls.

Mother Nature had other ideas on that day, as well as a handful of other dates this spring.

To get the games in — because the 5A vs. 4A games at the 5A schools count in the Inland Empire League standings this year — the Trojans took on Sandpoint on Wednesday, right in the middle of spring break, getting a sweep.

After winning the first game 5-0, Post Falls had to hold on in the second game before eventually sweeping 10-6.

“We had a mental letdown and just kind of went cold defensively and gave up four runs,” second-year Post Falls coach Kurt Reese said. “We just can’t do that and hope to win games. We’ve got to be able to finish games.”

Credit to the likes of Coeur d’Alene, Lake City, Post Falls and Lakeland. Not only did they travel to the Boise area to play some nonleague games. But, unfortunately for them, they took the cold weather south last weekend. Not ideal for a spring getaway.

Outside of an April 18th twinbill with Lakeland, Post Falls’ remaining schedule involves doubleheaders with 5A schools Coeur d’Alene, Lake City and Lewiston, all teams that the Trojans will have to solve to get to the state tournament.

“We’ve got to be ready to go out of the break,” Reese said. “We started to play through some of those mistakes in the second game against Sandpoint, so we’re trending in the right direction.”

Post Falls was scheduled to travel to Pasco, Wash., today to face the Bulldogs and Walla Walla, but those games have since been canceled and will not be made up.

Reese added that he’d like to add a nonleague game, likely within the Greater Spokane League if it works out, to make up for the lost dates.

“We’re starting to get a good idea of who our starters are going to be,” Reese said. “We’re still trying some kids at different spots in the lineup to get a good idea of what we’re going to do going forward.”

As far as scheduling goes, those 5A games mean a little more and playing the 4A schools earlier instead of later helps as far as matchups go.

“Playing those games early in the year is always such a coin toss with weather and if the game will get finished because of daylight,” said Reese, whose team was unable to finish the second game of a doubleheader with Moscow in the season opener on March 21. “I asked to play those 4A games earlier this year because once we get back from break we get right into the 5A league games at Coeur d’Alene (on Tuesday). April’s going to be a tough month. Those games between Lake City, Coeur d’Alene, us and Lewiston are going to be a dog fight. It’s going to be a really competitive league this year.”

ONCE AGAIN this spring, the state will seed the state 5A baseball tournament by using MaxPreps rankings, something that some coaches are still a little leary about.

So scheduling games, just to get a chance to be on the field, regardless of the classification, could wind up hurting a program in some cases.

“It all really comes down to who you play in the preseason,” fourth-year Coeur d’Alene coach Erik Karns said. “With all of our league games, it really comes down to who the other four or six games we can play.”

And while their softball counterparts might have scheduled games against 3A Timberlake …

“There’s really no incentive to play some of those smaller schools, no matter how good they might be, because it kills us in the rankings,” Karns said. “When it comes to seeding for the state tournament, if you lose a game or two to a smaller school, it’s just brutal. It’s baseball, and you just could have a bad game at the wrong time.”

Last year at state, Owyhee, the fifth seed, went on to win the state championship by beating second-seeded Rocky Mountain. Timberline, the third seed in 5A, won the third-place game.

Sooner or later, teams will be tested in the next month.

There’s just no breaks for that anymore.

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.