LEGION BASEBALL: Northern Lakes outlasts Lakers, who remain alive with win later

SANDPOINT — It was a game that was so close, Northern Lakes coach Bryce Johnson knew he’d have to do something late to get it done.

Then again, much later.

Grant Allaway singled to score Andrew Horn with the winning run with one out in the bottom of the 14th inning to lift the second-seeded Northern Lakes Mountaineers over the third-seeded North Idaho Lakers 7-6 in the Class A Area A tournament at Memorial Field on Saturday.

“We’d had guys in scoring position and just were missing that one big hit,” Johnson said. “When Grant’s got the bat in his hands, good things happen. Andrew got a good jump on it and I knew we had to make something happen. It was bang-bang, but Andrew was able to swipe his left hand on the plate and the catcher barely missed the tag. I was thinking if we lose this, I don’t know that we’re coming back from it. It was such a tight game and everything you’d expect a district tournament to be.”

Allaway had a team-high four hits for Northern Lakes (25-9), which scored four runs in the second inning to take a 4-2 lead. The Lakers tied the game in the seventh on an RBI single by Dallen Williams, one of his four hits in the game.

In the seventh, trailing 4-3 and down to his final strike, Cooper Lenz doubled for Northern Lakes and scored on an infield single by Raiston Ellwood to send the game to extra innings.

“Raiston is pretty fast and hits a chopping ground ball to shortstop,” Johnson said. “Knowing that they were going to throw to first, I just sent Cooper. Once Raiston beat the throw, they realized Cooper was about to score and he beat the throw.”

Dallen Williams went 4-for-6 with a double, three singles and two RBIs for the Lakers. Coleman Inge and Mason Little both recorded three hits each; Little had a go-ahead double in the top of the 10th that was matched in the bottom half of the inning.

Zeke Roop and Sage Medeiros had quality outings on the mound. Roop struck out eight batters over six innings while Medeiros fanned five batters in five innings.

Because the Northern Lakes-Lakers game ran so long, the semifinal game between Northern Lakes and the top-seeded Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen 17U was pushed back from Saturday night to today at 9:15 a.m. The loser will play the winner of a loser-game between Orofino and the North Idaho Lakers, which is scheduled for noon.

NORTHERN LAKES 7, NORTH IDAHO LAKERS 6, 14 INN.

N.I. Lakers 110 010 110 100 00 — 6 16 3

Northern Lakes 040 000 010 100 01 — 7 17 2

1 out when winning run scored.

Zeke Roop, Sage Medeiros (7), Jorden Tyler (12), Jayden Kuprienko (14) and Coleman Inge; Tadhg Ellwood, Parker Holly (8), Raiston Ellwood (11) and Jace Cooksey.

HITS: NIL — Little 3, Williams 4, Tyler, Roop, Johnson, Medeiros 2, Inge 3, Reichart. NL — R. Ellwood 3, Mason 2, Horn 2, Allaway 4, Cooksey, T. Ellwood 2, Wells, Lenz 2. 2B — Little, Williams, Medeiros, Mason 2, Horn, Lenz. 3B — Cooksey.

North Idaho Lakers 6

Lewis-Clark 3

SANDPOINT — Brent Campbell had two hits and four RBIs for the Lakers, who bounced back from the marathon loss and eliminated the fifth-seeded Cubs.

Williams, a rising sophomore, struck out eight and walked two for the Lakers (13-11), who will face the winner of Saturday's late game between Camas Prairie and Orofino in a loser-out game today.

Brent Campbell went 2-for-3 with a double, a single, and four RBIs; the southpaw also received the save on the mound after a 1-2-3 top of the seventh that included two strikeouts. Roop, Williams, and Medeiros all had two hits each. Soren Caprio went 1-for-3 hitting the only triple of the game.

LEWIS-CLARK 3, NORTH IDAHO 6

Lewis-Clark 000 012 0 — 3 6 10

North Idaho 033 000 — 6 10 1

W – Williams. L – Bambacigno.

HITS: LC – Way, Roberts, Bambacigno, Topp, Gilmore, Ralston. NIL – Williams 2, Roop 2, Medeiros 2, Campbell 2, Caprio, Inge. 2B – Roop, Campbell, Gilmore. 3B – Caprio, Roberts.

In other games Saturday, sixth-seeded Camas Prairie eliminated No. 7 St. Maries 10-6. Later Saturday, No. 4 seed Orofino knocked out Camas Prairie with a 7-3 win.

Coeur d’Alene 6

Narrows Select 3

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Owen Benson struck out six in a complete-game win for the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen AA team, which improved to 4-0 in the Northwest Club Championships with the victory at Edmonds Community College.

Bryce Hall and Kyle Bridge had two hits and two runs scored each for Coeur d’Alene (20-13), which plays the EForce Expos in a semifinal game in the 24-team 18U Elite division today at 9 a.m. at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue.

Coeur d’Alene 201 120 0 — 6 9 0

Narrows Select 000 030 0 — 3 7 2

Owen Benson and Joe DuCoeur; Dominic Kaptur, Justin Grande (4), Bundy (6), Welling (7) and Sleeter.

HITS: Cd’A — Hall 2, Bridge 2, Bumbaugh 2, Usdrowski, Robinett, Taylor. NS — McDermott, Jones, Williams, Vergara-Dykes 2, Sleeter, Saunders. 2B — Hall.