The Prairie baseball team finished third in the State for the second straight year after beating Clearwater Valley 4-0 in the third place game on Saturday, May 21 at Capital High School in Boise.
They opened the tournament with a 10-9 win over Rimrock on Thursday, May 19 then lost and ugly game to Troy 0-19 in the semifinals on Friday, May 20.
In the opener against Rimrock, the Raiders scored in the top of the first on a single and 2 errors.
Prairie came back in the bottom of the first with 3 runs to take the lead. Reece Shears led off with a single and stole second. The throw to second got away and Shears wound up at third. Cody Kaschmitter then reached on an error as Shears scored. A wild pitch moved Cody to second and another wild pitch moved him to third. He then scored when the throw to third got away for a third error in the inning. After an out, Colton McElroy walked and went to second when an attempted pickoff throw by the catcher went past first for a 4^th error. McElroy then scored when Eli Hinds doubled to left.
Noah Behler started on the mound for the Pirates and sailed through the second inning, getting the side in order.
Prairie added a run in the bottom of the second. Shears walked with 1 out and stole second. He went to third on a wild pitch and scored when Chase Kaschmitter doubled to left center.
Behler gave up a walk and a single in the third but then got the next two hitters to get out of the inning.
Prairie made it 6-1 with 2 runs in the third. Hinds reached on an error to lead of the inning. Behler followed with a single and Carter Shears went in as a courtesy runner. Travis Alfrey sacrificed the runners to second and third. Hinds then scored on a sild pitch and Carter Shears scored when Trenton Lorentz singled to right.
In the fourth, Behler recorded 2 strikeouts and then gave up a walk. That put him at 60 pitches meaning he could pitch Saturday with a full compliment if he didn’t pitch anymore. Coach Kyle Westhoff lifted Behler and brought in Alfrey. Alfrey was his choice because he is more dependable throwing strikes compared to some of his other options. The move almost backfired right away as Alfrey’s first pitch hit the batter and he then gave up a 3-run homer to cut the Pirates’ lead to 6-4. After a walk he got out of the inning with a strikeout.
Prairie was able to push the lead back to 3 in the bottom of the fourth. Chase Kaschmitter singled to left with 1 out and stole second. Colton McElroy and Eli Hinds both walked to load the bases. After a strikeout, Alfrey singled to left to score Kaschmitter and make it 7-4. The inning then ended with the bases still loaded.
Alfrey gave up a single in the fifth but left the runner stranded.
The Pirates added another run in the bottom of the sixth. Lorentz led off with  single and went to second on a wild pitch. Reece Shears grounded out as Lorentz moved to third. Lorentz scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Cody Kaschmitter.
Chase Kaschmitter followed with a single and Rimrock then changed pitches. Colton McElroy walked then Rimrock got out of the inning with a fly ball out.
In the sixth Alfrey got 2 quick outs then things unraveled for the Pirates. He hit a batter then gave up an infield hit. An error let a run in then a 2-run double cut the lead to 8-7. Alfrey was lifted in favor of Reece Shears. The first batter Shears faced turned into a disaster. Two errors were made on the play as the tying run scored and the batter wound up at third. Also both Alfrey, who had moved to second base, and first baseman Chase Kaschmitter were down on the field with injuries. Alfrey was bleeding and was taken off the field to treat the cut while Kaschmitter was able to stay in the game.
After a walk, a wild pitch allowed Rimrock to score the go-ahead run. Shears then got out of the inning with a strikeout.
Alfrey was able to come back into the game and singled in the bottom of the sixth but was put out trying to advance on a passed ball and Prairie was unable to score.
Chase Kaschmitter went to the mound in the seventh to try and hold Rimrock from scoring any more runs. He got the side out in order.
In the bottom of the seventh, Reece Shears walked with 1 out. He stole second and went to third when the throw got past the second basemen. Cody Kaschmitter singled to score Shears with the tying run. Chase Kaschmitter was intentionally walked. After a second out, Hinds singled to left center to bring Cody Kaschmitter to the plate with the winning run.
Prairie had 12 hits in the game led by Chase Kaschmitter who had a double and 2 singles and an RBI. Hinds had a double and a single and 2 RBI. Lorentz had 2 singles and an RBI. Alfrey had 2 singles and an RBI. Cody Kaschmitter had a single and 3 RBI. Shears and Behler each had a single.
Behler pitched 3 2/3 inninggs and allowed 2 runs on 2 hits with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts. Alfrey pitched 2 innings allowing 5 runs on 4 hits with 2 hit batsmen, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. Shears pitched 1/3 of an inning allowing 1 run on no hits with 1 walk and 1 strikeout. Kaschmitter pitched 1 inning allowing no runs on no hits with no walks and 2 strikeouts.
Rimrock  1 0 0 3 0 5 0—  9   6 6
Prairie     3 1 2 1 1 0 2—10 12 5
The game against Troy on Friday was a “Murphy’s Law” game for the Pirates as basically anything that could go wrong, did go wrong for Prairie.
Chase Kaschmitter, Reece Shears and Colton McElroy all pitched for the Pirates in the game and all three struggled to throw the ball in the strike zone.
Kaschmitter started on the mound and gave up 5 walks in the first inning, which combined with 1 hit and an error led to 4 runs. In the second inning the first 4 batters all reached against him and he was lifted in favor of Shears. Shears gave up 3 walks and 2 singles and was only able to get 1 out before he was lifted in favor of McElroy. McElroy walked 1 batter but got the other 2 out to get Prairie finally out of the inning.
McElroy pitched the rest of the game allowing 3 runs each in the third and the fifth.
Meanwhile on offense the Pirates couldn’t get anything going. They had just 2 baserunners the entire game. Cody Kaschmitter walked in the first inning and Logan Weber, in his first varsity at bat of the season, broke up Troy’s no-hit bid in the bottom of the fourth inning with a single. Everything else the Pirate batters hit hard was hit right at someone. They only time the fielder had to make any extra effort was the shortstop on a short fly ball to left by Dylan Uhlenkott.
Kaschmitter pitched 1+ innings allowing 8 runs on 3 hits with 6 walks, 1 hit batsman and 2 strikeouts. Shears pitched 1/3 of an inning allowing 5 runs on 3 hits with 3 walks and 1 strikeout. McElroy pitch 3 2/3 innings allowing 6 runs on 6 hits with 7 walks, 1 hit batsman and 4 strikeouts.
Troy    4 9 3 0 3—19 12 0
Prairie 0 0 0 0 0—  0   1 1
The Pirates turned things completely around in the third place game against C.V. on Saturday as Behler tossed a 1-hit shutout as the Pirates earned the third place trophy.
Behler’s outing on the mound justified coach Westhoff’s move in pulling him Thursday when he did so he would be allowed a full compliment of pitches on Saturday.
The game started out as a pitcher’s duel as C.V.’s Trebor Altman shut out the Pirates over the first 2 innings.
Prairie had baserunners but couldn’t score. In the first Reece Shears led off with a single but was caught stealing. Cody Kaschmitter followed with a single but was left stranded.
In the second inning Alfrey walked, Alex McElroy singled and Lorentz singled to load the bases. A grounder to third ended the inning, stranding 3 runners.
Meanwhile Behler had walked the leadoff hitter for C.V. then recorded 7 straight outs.
In the top of the third Chase Kaschmitter singled with 1 out and went to second on an errant pickoff throw. With 2 outs Colton McElroy walked. Behler then doubled to the game in left center with both runners scoring for a 2-0 Prairie lead.
In the bottom of the third Behler hit a batter with 1 out but the runner was thrown out at second trying to steal by catcher Cody Kaschmitter with shortstop Reece Shears making the tag.
Behler hit a batter in the fourth but he was stranded when Alfrey made a leaping grab of a line drive to end the inning.
In the fifth inning Prairie added 2 more runs. Cody Kaschmitter doubled to left and Chase Kaschmitter followed with a triple to the fence in the right field corner. Hinds then hit a sacrifice fly to left to make it 4-0 as Chase Kaschmitter scored.
C.V. broke up Behler’s no-hit bid in the bottom of the fifth with a 1 out single. That batter was forced at second and a walk followed before Behler got out of the inning with a grounder to second.
In the top of the sixth Lorentz singled with 1 out. Reece Shears followed with a single but Lorentz was thrown out at third on the play and the threat died with a pop-up to second.
Behler hit the leadoff batter in the bottom of the sixth but then caught the next two batters looking and ended the inning when he caught a pop-up to the mound.
In the seventh Chase Kaschmitter led off with a single but was forced at second by Hinds who advanced to second as the double play relay went wide of first. Hinds moved to third on a wild pitch but was left stranded.
In the bottom of the seventh Behler got a fly out to Alex McElroy in right then a strikeout. He walked a batter on a 3-2 count then got the final out to give Prairie the win.
Behler allowed just 1 hit in 7 innings with 2 walks, 3 hit batters and 8 strikeouts.
Prairie had 11 hits led by Chase Kaschmitter who had a triple and 2 singles and an RBI. Cody Kaschmitter had a single and a double. Shears and Lorentz each had a pair of singles. Behler had a double and 2 RBI. Alex McElroy had a single and Hinds had an RBI.
In kind of a quirky way that says “that’s baseball,” the last two days at State had the same matchups as the two days of District at Orofino except that the teams that lost those games at Orofino won at State. Also the third place participants at District were the championship game participants at State and vice-versa.
With the win Prairie ends their season with record of 13-12.
Prairie 0 0 2 0 2 0 0—4 11 1
C.V.   0 0 0 0 0 0 0—0   1 3