Lights-Out Reliever Saves Lakeland, 5-4

Darkness might have been Lakeland’s best reliever after the sixth inning of Thursday’s non-league high school baseball game with Post Falls at Brett James Memorial Field.

Umpires ended the game one inning early, with the Hawks guarding a 5-4 lead.

Lakeland started fast, connecting on three of its seven hits on the way to a 2-0 first-inning lead.

And all three of those Hawks’ hits were for extra bases, including a lead-off double by Kevin Bridge, a 360-foot solo home run by Josh Phelps and a double by Brady White.

A double-play initiated by third baseman Mike Heston helped Post Falls out of the fourth, and the Trojans rallied to overtake the lead behind three unearned runs.

“We just didn’t have the intensity in the first three innings,” Post Falls assistant coach Tom Pettoello said. “We had just a little bit of a letdown for some reason.

“I think what inspired us was some defensive plays,” Pettoello added. “(Heston’s) why we got started going offensively.”

Lakeland loaded the bases with one out in the sixth, tying the score at 3-3 with Bridge’s second right-field double of the game. The Hawks forged a one-run lead off Al Bevacqua’s sacrifice fly to center, then made it a 5-3 game off Phelps’ RBI grounder to center.

Post Falls kept the game interesting in the bottom of the sixth by loading the bases with one out, and Heston scored on a wild pitch. But the Trojans stranded runners at second and third.

“We made some physical mistakes with the errors,” Hawks coach Ken Busch said. “I think our pitching was real strong. We came through with the bats.”

Each team worked three pitchers two innings apiece. Casey Pluid wound up the winner, and James Ownbey took the loss.

Post Falls (1-1) travels to Spokane on Friday for a non-league game at North Central. Lakeland (1-0) plays host to Sandpoint for a non-league game on Monday.

At Central Valley, Ben Scharenberg’s bases-clearing double in the second lifted visiting Lake City to a 3-2 non-league win over the Bears.

Ben Miller homered for CV, which limited the Timberwolves to four hits.

Softball

Andrea Schmidt went 3 for 3 with two RBIs and Lake City turned three double plays to beat visiting Ferris 9-2 in a non-leaguer.

Jenny Owen and Laura Tolzmann each tripled for the Timberwolves.

Monica Hall pitched a twohitter over five innings, and she and Jeri Ann Huber hit two-run homers to lead visiting Lakeland (1-0) over Medical Lake 17-0.

Paige Smith went 2 for 3 with two RBIs for the Hawks.

, DataTimes