LEGION BASEBALL: DeBoer shines as Lums win Ellensburg tourney

| June 24, 2024 1:10 AM

ELLENSBURG, Wash. — Austin DeBoer came through in both games Sunday to lead the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen “AA” team to the championship of the East Side Collide at Central Washington University.

DeBoer, a left-hander, pitched 6.2 shutout innings in the semifinal, a 3-1 victory over Merchants Elite 18U of King County, Washington. In the championship game, he homered, doubled and drove in seven runs as Coeur d’Alene ran away from Baseball Advantage Prep 18U of Yakima 20-6 in five innings.

"He was awesome today," Coeur d'Alene coach Darren Taylor said. "He threw a gem in that first game; that was the real championship game. They're a real good team; that was a fun game to watch. They had a good pitcher going, and went blow for blow."

In the title game, the lefty-swinging DeBoer hit a three-run homer in the first inning, a sacrifice fly in the third, and a three-run double in the fifth.

Kolbe Coey hit a two-run single in the fifth for the Lums, and Nolan Christ went 2 for 3 with an RBI double in the fifth and two runs scored.

Travis Usdrowski hit a two-run triple in the third for the Lums, who earned the fourth and final seed to the championship round of the six-team tourney via a run-differential tiebreaker, then knocked off the top seed in the semis and the third seed in the final.

"Travis Usdrowski is just on a heater," Taylor said. "As good as we've seen in this program; having a summer like maybe Ryan Schneider had for us a couple of years ago. He's the heart of our lineup for sure."

Against the Merchants Elite, a team that beat the Lums 4-2 on Friday, DeBoer struck out nine, walked four and allowed two hits for Coeur d’Alene.

Chase Saunders singled in a run in the third to tie the game at 1-1, and Isaac Ziegler hit a two-run double in the fourth to put the Lums (9-9) ahead to stay.

"We're hoping this will be a little bit of a lift for us," Taylor said. "We've had some games where our defense really let us down, and hopefully we can get that shored up, and win some of these big games. We've definitely got the talent, we just have to get all the ingredients working at the same time."

Tuesday's doubleheader in Lewiston vs. Lewis-Clark has been postponed. Coeur d'Alene is scheduled to return to action Thursday at a tournament in Yakima.

COEUR d’ALENE 3, MERCHANTS ELITE 18U 1

Cd’A 001 200 0 — 3 5 3

ME 18U 010 000 0 — 1 2 1

Austin DeBoer, Aaron Gwaltney (7) and Chase Saunders; Preston Todd and Dylan Clark.

HITS: Cd’A — Shepard, Saunders, Usdrowski 2, Ziegler. ME — Todd, Gendzwill. 2B — Ziegler, Shepard, Usdrowski.

COEUR d’ALENE 20, BA PREP 18U 6

Cd’A 303 4(10) — 20 8 2

BA Prep 060 00 — 6 5 8

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

Isaac Ziegler, Aaron Gwaltney (4) and Kolbe Coey; Terry Huber, Skyler Lingle (3), Caleb Lindner (5), George Seubert (5) and R. Hill.

HITS: Cd’A — Usdrowski, DeBoer 2, Christ 2, Coey, Newby, Holecek. BA — Seubert 2, Nash, Lingle, Gallegos. 2B — DeBoer, Christ, Newby, Seubert. 3B — Usdrowski. HR — DeBoer, Lingle.

Camas Prairie 11

Northern Lakes 10

COTTONWOOD — The visiting Mountaineers nearly came all the way back from a seven-run deficit after five innings before falling to the Zephyrs for their first class A North Idaho League loss.

Evan Shanley hit a two-run double in the sixth, and Ethan Pecor followed with an RBI double to pull Northern Lakes (12-5, 9-1 NIL) within 10-7.

Camas Prairie scored once in the bottom half, but the Mountaineers scored three more times in the top of the seventh before a strikeout ended the game.

Shanley finished 2 for 3 with three RBIs and two runs scored for Northern Lakes. Pecor drove in a pair of runs, and Jace Taylor was 2 for 4 and scored three runs.

Northern Lakes travels to Sandpoint on Wednesday to play the North Idaho Lakers 19U in a 5 p.m. doubleheader at War Memorial Field.

N. Lakes 010 114 3 — 10 11 1

Cam. Pra. 154 001 x — 11 7 6

Evan Shanley, Cooper Lenz (2), Ethan Pecor (3) and Jace Cooksey; Noah Behler, JT Jackson (6) and Tavon Ebert, Thayn Williams (6).

HITS: NL — Lenz 2, Taylor 2, Shanley 2, Wylie 2, Pecor, Cooksey, Moore. CP — Holes 2, Shears, Ebert, Behler 2, Gardner. 2B — Lenz, Pecor, Ebert.