Oliver, Smith lead Bulldogs past Tigers

SANDPOINT — Tyler Newton and Caiden Oliver each had two hits, and Malaki Smith was sharp in three-plus innings of relief, leading Sandpoint to a 12-9 win over Timberlake on Friday in nonleague baseball at War Memorial Field.

Newton, Oliver, Kyle Perry, Talon Dewey and Nate Stangel each scored two runs for the Bulldogs (2-14), who scored a season-high 12 runs, and have now scored 20 runs in the past two games as the offense heats up.

The game was tied 9-9 in the fourth inning, when Malaki Smith came in relief and put up doughnuts in the final three frames for the Bulldogs.

“We’ve been waiting to see that out of Malaki, that was his best outing out the year,” said Bulldogs head coach Scott Fitchett, whose team fell behind by scores of 5-1 and 9-7, but rallied both times, an encouraging sign moving forward with a very young team. “The biggest thing is we responded from adversity. The win is nice, but that mentality is the biggest step we’ve taken so far.”

Seniors Jake Steen and Zach Quimby were honored before the game on Senior night, and Quimby now has four hits in the last three games for the Bulldogs. Timberlake (12-5), which has wins over both Moscow and Lakeland, committed four errors in the loss.

Sandpoint is the No. 3 seed in the 4A Region 1 tournament, and will face No. 2 seed Moscow on Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Lakeland High School, with the winner advancing to face No. 1 seed Lakeland for the right to go to state.

Timberlake  230 400 0 — 9   9   4

Sandpoint   142 230 x — 12   9   3

Caiden Oliver, Malaki Smith (4) and Paul Sundquist; Wyatt Howard, Austin Allen (3), Derek Hansen (5) and Jay Plunkett. W — Smith (1-1). L — Hansen.

HITS: Spt — Newton 2, Pearlstein, Dewey, Stangel, Perry, Quimby, Oliver 2. TL — Plunkett 2, Allen 2, Tonkin, Jones 2, Hansen, Galloway. 2B — Stangel, Oliver, Allen 2. 3B — Tonkin.