5A REGION 1 BASEBALL: At their best right now ... Lake City heads into state on a roll after knocking off Coeur d'Alene for second straight regional title

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Nineteen games into the season, Lake City coach Mike Criswell was seeking some consistency from his team.

Five straight wins later, the Timberwolves have been about as consistent as they could be.

Senior shortstop Jake Dannenberg had two hits and four RBIs as the top-seeded Timberwolves advanced to the state 5A tournament for the second straight year, beating the second-seeded Coeur d’Alene Vikings 9-1 in the Region 1 title game on Tuesday at Lake City High. 

It was the second straight regional title for the Timberwolves, last year's state runners-up.

“Right now, I think we’re playing our best baseball right now,” Criswell said. “Even though we’ve got injury on top of injury, or we’ve got guys not playing or four or five starters out, we’re putting guys in positions and they’re playing well. I think we stack up pretty well with everyone down south. We’ve got some pitchers and if we can play defense, we can match up pretty well. I’m excited.”

Senior Cooper Reese allowed eight runs in a 13-6 loss to Coeur d’Alene on April 16 at Coeur d’Alene High in his first start against the Vikings, then struck out eight in a 3-2 win on April 30 at Lake City. On Tuesday, Reese allowed four hits and struck out six in a complete-game win.

“I’ve faced them twice this season,” said Reese, who has signed to pitch at New Mexico State of the Mountain West Conference. “They got me the first time, I got them the second time. Today, I just went out and gave it 100 (percent) for all the guys. Being the last game here, there was a lot of motivation. Playing your big rival, there was a lot going into this. You’ve got to love it.”

Lake City (19-5) is third in the state 5A MaxPreps rankings, which is used to determine seeding for next week’s state tournament at Wolfe Field on the campus of College of Idaho in Caldwell. Matchups for the tournament, which begins on May 16, will be announced this weekend.

Coeur d’Alene (15-10) plays host to third-seeded Lewiston (14-10) on Thursday at 4 p.m. in the second-place game. The Bengals eliminated fourth-seeded Post Falls 2-0 in a loser-out game at Church Field on Tuesday. Post Falls finishes 11-11.

“We’re definitely playing our best baseball of the season right now,” Reese said. “We’re hungry for sure after the way it ended last year for sure. We’re ready to get down there. We’ve had a lot of injuries and lost our first baseman (Cole Stoddard) and a really good arm (Chris Reynolds), but we kind of tied it in when we were in a rut.”

After a scoreless first three innings, Lake City senior Charlie Dixon put his team on the board with a solo home run over the right field fence. Dixon, primarily a pitcher at the start of the season, stepped in for Stoddard, who was lost for the season due to a separated shoulder and injury to his labrum.

“It was a middle-in fastball and I was just able to turn on it a little bit,” Dixon said. “It’s been a really fun year. I was mainly a pitcher, but with our main first baseman (Stoddard) getting hurt, I was able to step in and fill a really big hole. In this stage, it was probably the biggest home run I’ve hit for the season.”

“In the first inning, I didn’t know if we’d be able to put anything together,” Criswell said. “I thought we were really loose in the (hitting) facility earlier. And we looked tight. Cooper really kept right in there. I knew that we could wait it out a little bit. Any time we can put up some runs, it takes some pressure off of us.”

Lake City extended the lead, taking advantage of a pair of Coeur d’Alene errors to take a 9-0 lead before the Vikings got on the board on an RBI single by Owen Field to score Nolan Christ, who tripled leading off the fifth inning.

“We had some opportunities to score and we kind of got out of our approaches a little bit,” fifth-year Coeur d’Alene coach Erik Karns said. “Pitching was good early and Will (Beckenhauer) gave us a good start, but then started missing some spots. And you can’t miss spots against a team like Lake City. They just hit the ball too well and if you leave the ball over the plate, they’re going to do damage.”

“That’s a great team over there,” Criswell said. “Erik does a great job with those guys.”

“It kind of rolled away from us there in the fourth inning,” Karns said. “We had two crucial errors that take six runs off the board there if we make a catch in center and make a play. Those things happen, and now we’ve got a good opportunity to come back and get the job done against Lewiston on Thursday."

Coeur d’Alene    000    010    0    —    1    4    3

Lake City    004    500    x    —    9    10    3

Will Beckenhauer, Trevor Rodda (3), Zeb Blattstein (4), Zane Blattstein (5) and Chase Saunders; Cooper Reese and Cooper Smith.

HITS: Cd’A — Field, Fenter, Coey, Christ. LC — Shepard 2, Usdrowski 2, Dannenberg 2, Holecek 2, Dixon, Hawkins. 2B — Coey, Hawkins, Usdrowski. 3B — Christ. HR — Dixon. 

Lewiston 2, Post Falls 0: The third-seeded Bengals scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth inning to eliminate the fourth-seeded Trojans (11-11) in a loser-out game at Church Field.

Post Falls    000    000    0    —    0    2    2

Lewiston    000    002    x    —    2    4    1

Austin DeBoer and Marshall Tomlinson; Cody Ray and River Stamper.

HITS: PF — Jimerson, Austin. Lew — Krasselt, Phillips, Ray, Way. 2B — none.

    JASON ELLIOTT/Press Lake City junior outfielder Jack Pierce hugs senior Charlie Dixon after Dixon's solo home run to give the Timberwolves a 1-0 lead in the third inning the 5A Region 1 baseball championship game at Lake City High on Tuesday. Also pictured is AJ Currie.