| Dance
team at state this weekend
The Prairie High School Dance team is in it's final week of practice as it prepares to compete at the Idaho State High School Dance Team Championships Saturday, March 17th. The girls have been polishing their routines over the past month in readiness for this event.  The
Prairie girls will be competing in the Military, Dance, and Kick Divisions.
Each team at state must compete in 3 of 6 possible divisions to earn a
team score. The other events are the Prop, Novelty and Lyrical Divisions.
Awards will be given out to the top 5 placers in each event as well as
the top team score.
Earlier this season at the District II Championships the Prairie team turned in a very impressive team score which earned them a second place finish to Potlatch. The Kamiah team placed third. This 06-07' season culminated in Prairie's best District II placing ever in both the 3 event divisions and in the team rankings. Prairie managed to capture a second place at Districts in the dance and military divisions and a first place in the kick. Additionally, team choreographer and undisputed District Solo Dance champion, Sienna Benton recaptured her title for the third year running. Sienna scored an amazing 289 out of a possible 300 points. She received the highest score in the entire competition. Unfortunately State doesn't allow for competition in the solo division, which is considered a specialty event. The Prairie High ladies have worked very hard this year on learning new dance skills, technique, new choreography styles and showmanship. If you've attended one of the basketball half-time shows you'll have noticed the transformation. The dance team is coached by Shelli Schumacher. Good luck at the State Championships in Nampa! Lady Pirates second at Orofino Tournament The Prairie Lady Pirates opened their softball season by winning 2 of 3 at a tournament in Orofino Friday and Saturday, March 9-10 to take second place. On Friday the defeated Grangeville 5-3 and Potlatch 4-3 to advance to the championship game. On Saturday in the championship game they led 8-7 in the middle of the fourth inning then things came unraveled as they wound up losing 9-19 to Lakeland of Rathdrum. 
In Friday’s opener against Grangeville, their leadoff hitter reached on a bloop single to right but was thrown out at second trying to steal by catcher Brooke Holthaus and pitcher Meghan VanderPas got the next two hitters out. Prairie took the lead in the bottom of the first as Tiffany Schaeffer led off with a double to right center and went to third on a passed ball. She scored on Alli Holthaus’ 2-out single to center. Grangeville took the lead in the third inning with a 2-out rally. A single, hit batter and another single plus an error led to a pair of runs. In the bottom of the inning Prairie managed to tie the score as Tiffany Schaeffer led off with a single to left. She then stole both second and third and scored on Meghan VanderPas’ groundout to third. Prairie took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth with 3 runs on just 2 hits. Hilaree VanderPas led off with a walk and 2 wild pitches later was on third. Kim Schaeffer walked and stole second. Tabitha Seubert then singled to right to score both runners. After an out, Tiffany Schaeffer picked up her third hit of the game with a single to left with Seubert stopping at third. Brooke Holthaus then brought home Seubert with a groundout to third to make it 5-2.  Grangeville
added a run in the top of the fifth with 3 singles to cut the lead to 5-3.
The game was stopped after 6 innings because both teams thought there was a 90 minute time limit on games. They found out later there wasn’t. Tiffany Schaeffer had a double and 2 singles while Alli Holthaus and Tabitha Seubert had 2 singles each and Hilaree VanderPas had a single. Meghan VanderPas allowed 6 hits with 3 walks and 2 hit batters while striking out 9. Prairie then played Potlatch and neither team scored in the first 3 innings although Prairie threatened to in the first. Tiffany Schaeffer and Brooke Holthaus each singled and Meghan VanderPas was hit by a pitch to load the bases but a lineout that turned into a double play helped Potlatch keep the Pirates from scoring. Prairie took the lead with a run in the fourth inning. With two outs Hilaree VanderPas singled and went to second on a passed ball. She scored on Kim Schaeffer’s single. Potlatch came back in the bottom of the inning to take the lead as they converted a single, 2 walks and a double into 2 runs. Prairie tied the score in the sixth when Meghan VanderPas led off the inning with a home run. The game wound up tied after 7 innings. As a time-saving move, the person who made the last out in the seventh started the eighth inning on second base which put Brooke Holthaus on second for Prairie. Meghan VanderPas then doubled to score Holthaus. VanderPas then beat the throw home on Kara Guyer’s grounder. 
In the bottom of the inning, Potlatch also started the inning with a runner on second. Meghan VanderPas struck out their first hitter and the next one grounded out to third with the baserunner moving up. A single cut the Prairie lead to 1 run but VanderPas then got the next hitter to ground out to short to end the game. Meghan VanderPas had a homer and double while Tiffany Schaeffer, Brooke Holthaus, Hilaree VanderPas, Kim Schaeffer and Kaschmitter each had a single. Meghan VanderPas allowed 3 hits with 5 walks and struck out 8. In the championship game on Saturday the 1-A division Pirates faced the 4-A division Lakeland Hawks. Prairie took the lead with a run in the first. Tiffany Schaeffer led off with a walk but was forced at second by Guyer. Guyer then stole second and went to third on a passed ball. She scored on Meghan VanderPas’ ground out back to the pitcher. Prairie made it 2-0 in the second with another run. Brooke Holthaus hit a 1-oiut single to left and went to second on a wild pitch. She scored on Kim Schaeffer’s single to left. Lakeland came back in the bottom of the second with 5 runs, all unearned. Meghan VanderPas missed the tag on a comebacker for what would have been the second out and the next hitter grounded out to second for what should have been the third out with nobody scoring. A hit batter, 2 singles and 2 throwing errors later Lakeland had a 2-5 lead. Prairie answered back though with their own big inning.  Guyer
hit a 1-out double to center and Meghan VanderPas walked. Alli Holthaus
followed with a single to score Guyer and Hilaree VanderPas blooped a single
to right to score her sister. After a second out, Kim Schaeffer walked
to load the bases. Leora Laurino then hit a fly ball to left that was dropped
for a 2-base error that cleared the bases. Laurino then scored on Rachel
Kaschmitter’s single up the middle to give Prairie an 8-5 lead.
Two more errors in the bottom of the inning allowed Lakeland to score 2 more runs and cut the lead to 8-7. Lakeland changed pitchers in the fifth and Prairie went down in order in the fourth. Prairie still led 8-7 going into the bottom of the inning. Four walks, 3 errors and 4 hits later, Lakeland had scored 10 runs to take an 8-17 lead. Prairie added a run in the fifth but Lakeland scored a run each in the fifth and sixth to end the game on the 10-run mercy rule. Hilaree VanderPas had 2 singles while Guyer had a double and Alli Holthaus, Brooke Holthaus, Kim Schaeffer and Kaschmitter each had a single. Meghan VanderPas allowed 8 hits, 7 walks and hit one batter while striking out 3. Tiffany Schaeffer pitched to 2 batters in the sixth allowing 1 hit. Vs. Grangeville Grangeville 0 0 2 0 1 0-3 6 2 Prairie 1 0 1 3 0 x-5 8 1 Vs. Potlatch Prairie 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2-4 7 0 Potlatch 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1-3 3 1 Vs. Lakeland Prairie 1 1 6 0 1 0- 9 7 9 Lakeland 0 5 2 10 1 1-19 10 2 PHS Softball Schedule March 16-Orofino Tournament - games at 5 and 7 p.m.
5-Lewis County, here, 4:30 p.m. 10-vs. Sandpoint (2 games) at Lewiston, 3 p.m. 12-vs. Timberline (2 games) at Lewiston, 4:30 p.m. 14-Genesee, here (2 games) 11 a.m. 16-Grangeville, there (2 games) 4 p.m. 17-Culdesac, there, 4:30 p.m. 19-Kendrick, here, 4:30 p.m. 21-Troy, there, (2 games), 11 a.m. 23-Lapwai, here, 4:30 p.m. 24-Culdesac, here, 4:30 p.m. 3-Kendrick there, 4 p.m. (reschedule of cancelled March 12 game) 5, 8, 10-District at Prairie 18-19-State at Lewiston |
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