5A REGION 1 BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: Something to smile about ... Lake City gets defensive, notches first trip to state since 2016

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Sometimes, it takes a special effort to get you to the finish line.

Consider the fourth inning of Wednesday’s 5A Region 1 baseball championship as Eric Bumbaugh’s senior moment at Lake City.

Bumbaugh, playing centerfield, made a diving catch in the gap to keep the game tied at 2-2, then drove in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the frame for the Timberwolves, who advanced to state for the first time since 2016 with a 6-2 win over the Lewiston Bengals at Lake City High.

“I knew there were runners on and had to make a play for my team,” Bumbaugh said. “It just worked out well for us that it was a clutch play.”

In the bottom of the frame, Bumbaugh scored Ty Shepard when his fly ball popped out of the glove of the Lewiston left fielder.

“We came into the game yesterday ready to go,” Bumbaugh said. “After we were rained out, we had to come back with the same mindset. We couldn’t have a letdown. We came into today calm and knew what we needed to do and dominated the game.”

Braeden Newby also had a diving catch to close out the sixth inning for Lake City (19-6), which opens at state next Thursday at Wolfe Field on the campus of College of Idaho in Caldwell.

It is the first appearance at state since 2016 for Lake City, when the Timberwolves claimed the title with a 4-1 win over Meridian.

Lewiston (14-12) will visit Coeur d’Alene (15-11) in the second-place game today at 4 p.m., with the winner advancing to a state play-in game on Saturday in Lewiston.

“That catch from Bumbaugh, it’s something we’ve seen from him all year,” said first-year Lake City coach Mike Criswell, who took over for Paul Manzardo. “The one from Newby scared me a little more than excited me. But the wind held it up long enough, and Braeden got a good jump on it. You’ve got to keep that mojo going when good things happen, and we kept it.”

Lake City junior pitcher Cooper Reese struck out six and allowed two earned runs, nothing after Lewiston took a 2-0 lead after the second inning.

“I just had to trust what (pitching) coach (Cody) Garza had for me,” Reese said. “I started out with a bad frontside, fixed it and was able to throw my breaking ball really well. Everything just kind of fell from that.”

“We didn’t come out with a ton of energy and weren’t throwing strikes right away,” Criswell said. “Lewiston came out ready to play. They were like a football squad over there and were ready for us. But it’s really hard to outlast our lineup. We always say there’s a lot of game left, stay positive and our boys just stay relaxed.”

Cooper Smith and Owen Mangini had two hits and an RBI each for Lake City.

The game, previously scheduled for Tuesday, was rained out after a rainstorm flooded the field at Lake City, making it unplayable, something Reese was thankful for.

“My breaking pitches were really bad yesterday,” Reese said. “I was very lucky we got rained out because it could have been bad.”

Reese finished the game with 106 pitches, nearly hitting the limit of 110.

“It was really hard to take him out late in the game,” Criswell said. “I just couldn’t justify it. It was his game and we had to leave him in to finish it. Our guys just made some great defensive plays in the outfield. We were trading double plays back and forth, and it was going to come down to whoever made the most plays. It was just a beautiful game.”

Lewiston 110 000 0 — 2 6 2

Lake City 002 103 x — 6 9 1

Gabe Krasselt and Tyler Granlund; Cooper Reese and Joe DuCoeur.

HITS: Lew — Jelinek, Bensching, Ricard, Daniel, Taylor 2. LC — Smith 2, Bumbaugh 2, Mangini 2, Dannenberg, Newby, Shepard. 2B — Jelinek, Shepard, Smith 2.