State baseball: Coeur d’Alene loses pitchers’ duel in 5A tournament opener

Coeur d’Alene pitcher Jackson Sumner was outstanding Thursday at the 5A State baseball tournament, surrendering just three hits and no earned runs.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, their senior ace’s effort wasn’t enough. Rocky Mountain standout Ethan Christianson countered with a brilliant outing of his own, and three early errors came back to bite Coeur d’Alene during a 3-1 opening-round loss at Borah High’s Wigle Field in Boise.

Rocky Mountain (20-5) advances to play Bonneville in Friday’s semifinals. Coeur d’Alene (16-10) will face Columbia in a consolation-round game at 5 p.m.

“In playoff games, it boils down to who pitches best and who can play catch,” Vikings coach Nick Mahin said. “Unfortunately, early in the game, the moment was too big for us and we didn’t make the routine plays.”

Sumner struck out eight, including the first three batters he faced. He nearly worked around a pair of walks in the second, but a mishandled two-out grounder allowed Kase Ogata to scamper home for the game’s first run.

Shaky defense helped Rocky Mountain pad its lead in the third. Leadoff man Ryan Hansen reached on an error and scored on Kaden Hollow’s RBI double, with an extra run coming home on a poor relay throw. Just like that, it was 3-0 Grizzlies.

“It’s unfortunate,” Mahin said. “Those are plays we usually make. But I will say this about our guys – I’m proud of the way they continued to grind and compete.”

Working with an early lead, Christianson pounded the strike zone with hard fastballs. The junior Seattle University commit finished with nine strikeouts and looked nearly untouchable through five innings, allowing only a flare single to left by Quinton Bunch.

“I relied a lot on my fastball,” Christianson said. “I knew if I threw strikes, my teammates would get the outs for me.”

CdA’s offense finally broke through in the sixth, with Devon Johnson drawing a walk and Noah Mayfield singling to lead off the inning. With nobody out, Cameron Luckey ripped a sharp grounder to the right side, but first baseman Nolan Walker made a diving stop – perhaps the most important play of the game – to retire Luckey as the runners advanced to second and third.

Sumner followed with an RBI single through the middle, but Christianson got a strikeout and induced a fly out to deep right to escape the jam without further damage.

“It was a pitcher’s duel out there, a real back-and-forth battle,” Sumner said. “We were just one hit away from breaking it open, and their first baseman made a diving play that kind of saved it for them.”

Hollow finished with two of the game’s six hits for Rocky Mountain. Payton Lewis’ bunt single was the Grizzlies’ only other hit off Sumner.

Sumner, Mayfield and Bunch had the hits for Coeur d’Alene. Outside of the sixth inning, the Vikings only put three runners on base against Christianson.

5A

Capital 6, Lewiston 2: Grayson Sterling hit a two-run double in the seventh inning as part of a six-run rally and Capital (18-7) defeated Lewiston (18-7) at Borah HS.

Lewiston’s Julian Washburn, who struck out eight of the first 10 batters he faced, carried a one-hitter through the sixth inning before Capital (18-7) exploded. In six-plus innings, Washburn allowed four runs on three hits and five walks with nine Ks.

Capital’s Drew Zmuda allowed two runs on three hits and twp walks with seven strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings.

Lewiston faces Madison (14-11) in the consolation round on Friday.

4A

Skyline 16, Lakeland 10: Jared McDaniel drove in five runs but visiting Lakeland (11-9) fell to Skyline (16-13) at Bishop Kelly HS.

McDaniel and Ryan Pote had three hits apiece for Lakeland.

Lakeland plays Middleton (17-10) in the consolation round on Friday.

3A

Bonners Ferry 10, Teton 1: Jesse Dunham struck out eight and allowed one run across six innings to lead Bonners Ferry (19-3) over Teton at Treasure Valley CC in Ontario, Oregon.

Brady Bateman, Kevin Gray and Nick Sabin all drove in a pair of runs apiece for the Badgers.

Bonners Ferry advances to play Payette in a semifinal matchup on Friday at 3:00 p.m.

Sugar-Salem 6, Timberlake 0: McCall Small struck out nine in a complete game to lead Sugar-Salem (20-4-1) over Timberlake (7-10) at TVCC.

Cody Overson drove in a pair of runs for the Diggers.

Timberlake plays March Valley (16-8-1) in the consolation round on Friday.