THE FRONT ROW with JASON ELLIOTT: Prairie's next step, taking it one game at a time

It wasn’t so much that the Prairie Cardinals hit a bad stretch in that Gonzaga Showcase tournament.

As coach Nathan Collier describes, it was just  getting back to playing smart baseball.

“We had a tough loss and after the game, we had a team meeting,” Collier said. “We talked about righting the ship.”

AFTER THAT, Prairie went on to win twice the following day and get on a run, eventually winning the Class A Area A championship on July 20.

“We were doing a lot of good things at the time,” Collier said. “But we just weren’t finishing games the right way. From that point, it was really a collective effort from the guys to want to finish the season strong. Our defense has really been cutting down on the mistakes and we started to swing the bats really well at districts.”

After losing its opener at state 7-0 to the Idaho Falls Bees, Prairie won four straight loser-out games at state in Idaho Falls, advancing to the championship round. Because Burley is hosting the Northwest Regional tournament starting on Thursday, Idaho gets two bids to regionals.

Burley was leading the Idaho Falls Grizzlies 11-10 in the bottom of the seventh inning. With a win, the Grizzlies could have forced a scenario where two teams met on Monday, with that winner advancing to the title game and both teams advancing from that game.

However, Burley held on to beat Idaho Falls, clinching the regional bid for Prairie.

“(Post Falls Legion post commander) Tim (Shaw) and I were there watching the game,” Collier said. “An Idaho Falls player hit a home run that would have won the game, but was just a few inches foul. It was a very pins and needles moment for us. We knew if Burley pulled it off, they’d be the host and we’d be the second team in.”

In that first loser-out game, Prairie beat Northern Lakes 2-1 in 11 innings.

“It made it where we almost had to play three games in one day,” said Collier, whose team beat the Nampa Braves 6-1 to advance in the consolation bracket later that day. “But we had four incredible pitching performances. Against Northern Lakes, James (Morast) had to go eight innings and Gavin (Wienker) had to pitch the final three innings. It was really remarkable. Then to have Timothy (Howard) and Grady (Stinson) throw back-to-back seven inning games with one run each and a low pitch count really saved us. Those guys did a good job of pitching to contact, but also making sure we didn’t walk anyone.”

Wienker came back on Sunday to pitch the Cardinals into regionals with a 5-3 win over the Idaho Falls Bees.

“For him to come back and give us another seven innings was really remarkable,” Collier said. “To get that kind of length out of each of those guys really helped us stretch this run out a lot further.”

PRAIRIE WILL open at regionals against the Montana state champion on Thursday.

The Cardinals enter the tournament 25-15-1. 

Prairie, which did not field Legion programs in 2021, 2022 and 2023, advanced to the Washington state A tournament last year with a lot of the same players on the roster. 

“We expected to be competitive this year,” said Collier, who played for Prairie in 2012. “We had a really young team that competed and won some games last year. We came into this year expecting to get to state. We expected to take a little bit of a jump this year, but didn’t really expect to be playing into August. But once you get to state, anything can happen. Beyond the state tournament wasn’t something we ever discussed. Our goal was to win districts, get to state, and see what happens. But we didn’t expect this.”

Collier added that the player's connection, both on and off the field, has helped the team stay on the right path.

“A lot of them hang out together and there's chemistry with them,” Collier said. “Even if they weren’t playing together, I think they’d be together doing something. They genuinely like each other, and that’s a unique thing to see.”

As for expectations at regionals, Collier just wants to keep it to one game at a time, much like at state. Regionals is the end of the road for the Class A teams.

“We’d like to have that same momentum going into regionals,” Collier said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge. I think we’ll be competitive. We’re looking forward to having a few practices here, then getting on the road. We’ll try to take a look at things after each round and evaluate what we did well to get this deep into the season.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for The Press. He can be reached by telephone at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1206 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on ‘X’, formerly Twitter @JECdAPress.

    Courtesy photo The Prairie Cardinal Single-A American Legion baseball team advanced to the Northwest Regional tournament in Burley starting Thursday.
  

    Courtesy photo The Prairie Single-A American Legion baseball team finished second in the recent state tournament, advancing to the Northwest Regional tournament starting on Thursday at Burley High. Members of the team are Alec Finn, Andrew Olson, Breckin Hoskinson, Bryce Berger, Camden Fitzpatrick, Damien LaFountain, Gavin Wienker, Grady Stinson, Isaiah Kearney, James Morast, Jonas Brown, Logenn Storr, Timothy Howard, Mason Perkins, Toby Begalman and coaches Nathan Collier, Brett Berger and Neil Begalman.