Bulldogs' season ends with loss to Hawks

RATHDRUM — Troy Carr went 2 for 3 with three RBIs and three runs scored as the Lakeland Hawks defeated the Sandpoint Bulldogs 16-0 in a 4A Region 1 baseball tournament loser-out game on Wednesday at Gorton Field.

Lakeland (17-4) advances to face Moscow (7-10) in the 4A Region 1 championship game starting at noon on Saturday at Moscow. Should Lakeland win, the teams will play an if-necessary game at 3 p.m. for the region’s lone berth to the state 4A tournament at Bishop Kelly High in Boise.

Lakeland scored 10 first inning runs to blow the game open.

Seniors Zac Farrell and Nik Feyen had the two hits for the Bulldogs (0-21), who endured a tough season with a lot of freshmen seeing varsity action. Playing young usually pays dividends in the future, but it made for some one-sided losses.

Despite the tough season, Sandpoint earned the respect of Lakeland head coach Jason Bradbury, whose own team struggled a few years back before turning things around.

“I’ve been impressed with their coaches and players all season,” Bradbury said of Sandpoint. “I’ve never seen a kid act out of control or act negative and that says something about the coaches down to the players. Those kids go out working hard. They hit a lot of ground balls today and they all hustled. Win or lose, that’s all you can ask of a kid.”

Jeremy McKinney went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and three runs scored for Lakeland, which had three pitchers combine for 12 strikeouts and no walks.

“We’ve really been working on keeping the ball down,” Bradbury said. “We weren’t locating our off-speed stuff last Saturday, but today we located it really well.”

Sandpoint vv000 00 —v 0   2   4

Lakeland (10)01 5x — 16  10   0

Game called in 5th inning due to 10-run rule.

Nik Feyen, Justin Puryear (2), Tyler Newton (3), Michael Plaster (4) and Paul Sundquist; James Prockish, Troy Carr (3), Dylan Piva (4) and Logan Bruner. W — Prockish (3-1). L — Feyen.

HITS: Spt — Farrell, Feyen. LL — Jackson, Howell, McKinney, Carr 2, Johnson, Marks, Prockish, Bruner, Crane. 2B — Jackson, Carr, Johnson.