THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The 'process' has Lake City baseball in first place — but the 'smiling' still awaits

Until Tuesday, the Lake City Timberwolves were the hottest thing going in Inland Empire League baseball.

The Timberwolves won their first 14 league games before splitting with the Post Falls Trojans on Tuesday.

Still, Lake City remains on the verge of its first outright league title in five years. After Tuesday's results, the Timberwolves have clinched at least a tie for the league title.

Pretty good for a program that, despite two state titles and two other trips to the state title game in its (somewhat) brief history, surprisingly hasn’t been to state since 2016 — when Lake City won the title.

“It’s a process,” said first-year Lake City head coach Mike Criswell, an assistant in the T-Wolves’ program the past 13 seasons.

THAT PROCESS started a bit slow.

In December Criswell, who teaches biology at Lake City, was promoted to head coach after Paul Manzardo resigned after seven seasons as head coach. Paul’s wife, Windy, last year was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease which has attacked the electrical system of her heart. She needs a heart transplant, and he needs to be nearby.

Under Criswell, Lake City turned some heads in March when it swept Lewiston at Lewiston in its second and third games of the season.

Then the T-Wolves headed to the Boise area for four games and “got our butts kicked,” Criswell recalled.

Lake City lost 7-1 in its first game to Rocky Mountain of Meridian — a game the Grizzlies were adamant about playing, Criswell said, as they plowed snow off the field that morning, and delayed the start some three hours to they could get the game in.

The T-Wolves then lost 6-0 to Eagle and 6-2 to Madison, but went home on a high note after beating Mountain View of Meridian 5-4 in 10 innings.

“I thought Mountain View was the best team there,” Criswell said. “We lost those (other) games, but we had a real short memory.”

The T-Wolves chalked up the trip to experience — plus, Lake City hadn’t been outside much prior to the trip — and the T-Wolves weren’t used to the speed of the game played by the Boise-area teams.

Since then, the Timberwolves have been outside as much as possible, despite the coldish spring weather — even taking batting practice outside, instead of hitting in their nearby indoor facility.

“You get more of a true reading on how you’re hitting,” Criswell said. “I think the facility lies; when you're on the field, it doesn’t lie.”

That Mountain View victory was the start of a 13-game winning streak, which included a sweep of Coeur d’Alene last week — a streak that just came to a halt on Tuesday.

Offensively, Lake City is led by junior Cooper Smith (.448) and senior Joe DuCoeur (.409). On the mound, it’s been juniors AJ Currie (6-0, 2.04 ERA) and Cooper Reese (4-1, 1.93 ERA).

“We have guys that can swing the bat one through nine,” Criswell said. “I wouldn’t want to face us.”

And Lake City is leading the league even without two of its best players — Chris Reynolds, out for the season with an elbow injury aggravated last fall, and Kyle Johnson, who suffered a knee injury during football season.

“These kids, they’ve been around baseball,” Criswell said. “They have a decent baseball IQ.”

Criswell said he, along with assistant coaches Justin Garza and Cody Garza, have created “a pretty casual vibe” around the team.

“It almost feels like a summertime baseball vibe,” Criswell said. “Not a lot of screaming and yelling, and they look pretty darn relaxed. They know baseball; just let ’em play. I just guide them.”

During the fall, three members of that 2016 Lake City state title team — Cody Garza, Jarred Hall and Tanner Criswell, Mike’s son — worked with the T-Wolves, and Mike Criswell said the current players tried to soak up as much of that state title mojo as they could.

Even after sweeping Post Falls last Saturday at Post Falls, Criswell was not totally happy with how his team played. He said the T-Wolves would have to “regroup,” even after a sweep, and apparently the team will need more “regrouping” after Tuesday’s split.

Lake City (16-5, 15-1 IEL), with a two-game lead over second-place Coeur d’Alene (11-9, 11-3), will travel to Coeur d’Alene for a doubleheader next Tuesday to wrap up the regular season.

THE POSTSEASON is coming up soon, and if anything’s a sure thing in the 5A Inland Empire League, it’s that regular season success doesn’t necessarily transfer to postseason success. That 2018 Lake City team that won the 5A IEL, for one example, did not make it to state.

So Lake City will have to prove itself in early May all over again. And Criswell said the T-Wolves will be more prepared for the speed of the games down south this time at state, “if we’re lucky enough to get back down there.”

At a meeting prior to the season, Criswell showed the players’ parents clips from the 2015 season, when Lake City played for the consolation title in its first trip to state since 2008 — “You don’t win in ’16 if you don't go in ’15” was the message.

Since that state title, the closest the T-Wolves have gotten to state was in 2019 and ’21, when they lost in state play-in games.

“Our whole goal is to qualify for state — that drought, it has been too long,” Criswell said. “I won’t be smiling until we get back to state.”

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.