Lower seeds get a carrot in 4A regionals

COEUR d’ALENE — There could be some stealing going on in the upcoming 4A Region 1 baseball and softball tournaments.

And it might not necessarily have anything to do with bases.

The 4A Inland Empire League recently tweaked its format for regional baseball and softball this year. Now, if the lower seed beats the higher seed, the lower seed would “steal” the seed from the higher seed, and would be the home team if the two teams meet again later in the tournament.

It’s a good idea, especially in the far-flung 4A IEL, where the difference between Lakeland and Sandpoint traveling to Moscow, or letting Moscow bus all the way up here, is huge.

So, say, if the No. 3 seed beats the No. 2 seed, the No. 3 team would host the next time they played. And if either of them beat the top-seeded team in the second round, they would host the championship round.

“We have been talking about it for a long time and finally decided to make the change,” Lakeland athletic director Trent Derrick said.

The 4A IEL is also implementing nearly the same format in boys and girls basketball beginning next year — the only difference being, the loser seed can only steal the higher seed with a win if they split with the higher seed during league play.

“With baseball and softball it is a little different as we have the doubleheader at the high seed so that didn’t make as much sense to do this, especially when you get to the if-necessary game in the championship game,” Derrick said.

The 4A IEL has also tweaked its regional formats for baseball and softball to save on travel.

The 4A Region 1 baseball tournament begins Saturday at the home of the No. 1 seed (Lakeland), with No. 3 (Sandpoint) playing No. 2 (Moscow) at noon, followed by No. 1 vs. the winner at 3 p.m. The loser-out game is Wednesday, with the championship round (only the regional champ advances to state) scheduled for the following Saturday.

The 4A Region 1 softball tournament begins next Tuesday at top-seeded Lakeland. No. 3 Sandpoint plays No. 2 Moscow at 3 p.m., with the winner playing Lakeland at 5:30. The loser-out game is next Thursday, with the championship round next Saturday.

In the past, each game was played at the higher seed, which led to a lot of travel miles racked up on U.S. 95.

Last year, because of rainouts, Lakeland played four regional tourney games in five days — traveling to Moscow three times in four days. Moscow played four games in four days, though all were at home.