THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Cottonwood field almost a literal graveyard for Northern Lakes

When a team gets tested, whether it’s early or late in the season, you find a lot of things about what kind of group you have.

Northern Lakes class A baseball coach Bryce Johnson found out plenty about his American Legion team last Sunday in Cottonwood.

NORTHERN LAKES began its road trip last Saturday in Orofino, winning a North Idaho League game 5-0 before falling in a second game 22-14 in a nonleague game.

The next day, Northern Lakes lost to Camas Prairie at Prairie High in Cottonwood in a league game, the team’s first loss in league play this season.

“Strange things seem to happen at that field in Cottonwood for us,” Johnson said. “The field is next to a graveyard and we haven’t had great luck there in the last few years.”

As what tends to happen during the summer, Northern Lakes was back in action on Tuesday, playing the North Idaho Lakers in a doubleheader at Memorial Field. Both teams entered the game 9-1.

“I was kind of wondering how our kids were going to respond,” Johnson said. “We’d played well in Orofino, but those games between us and them (North Idaho) have been really close the last couple of years.”

Northern Lakes swept by identical 4-3 outcomes. Grant Allaway struck out six in the second game, Jace Taylor seven in the first.

“Our kids did a good job of taking care of business,” Johnson said. “We got great starts on the mound from Jace and Grant and we played pretty good defense.”

WHEN THE Seattle Mariners' latest road trip started with the team looking as if it was going to start selling playoff tickets, I’ll admit, I might have been looking into places to stay in that area.

Beating the Cleveland Guardians 8-5 in a series opener gave fans a ton of hope that the Mariners were able to compete with the AL-leading Guardians, who’d been sparked by the addition of prospect and Coeur d’Alene native Kyle Manzardo.

Then again, much to a lot of people’s disappointment, Manzardo was optioned to Triple-A Columbus as the series began, and that series ended with a thud.

So did series in Miami and Tampa Bay, where the team found ways to lose winnable games to finish the road trip 3-6. 

Not exactly great to see a 10-game lead in the American League West shrink to 4 ½ entering Friday’s home game against visiting Minnesota.

The good thing is Seattle actually plays better at home — imagine that — and leads the league with a 27-12 record at T-Mobile Park.

With what seems to be a tailspin, it might not be ideal to have Minnesota, Baltimore and Toronto coming to town, but at some point, you’ve got to see what this team is made of.

Sure, it’s easy to panic about the way things have been going.

But stay patient, it will get better.

Nobody could have predicted that Edmonton, after firing its head coach in November, was going to make the playoffs.

Let alone win three straight games in the Stanley Cup final to force a Game 7, then have a legit shot at winning the Cup before losing 2-1 to Florida.

No, the Mariners shouldn’t get any bright ideas and fire manager Scott Servais in order to get this team going.

We don’t need those big booming fireworks going right now anyway.

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.