BOISE - While it wasn't the win they were hoping for, the Lewis-Clark Twins' 12-inning spectacle - a 13-12 loss to Boise - could be seen as an improvement on the two teams' last meeting.
Tuesday's 10-0 heartbreaker against the Caps sent L-C into the losers' bracket of the Idaho Class AA state tournament. The Twins clawed their way through three days of elimination games, even knocking down Idaho Falls, the last undefeated team in the tournament, with Friday's 6-2 victory, giving them one final shot at the title.
During Saturday's third-place game, the Caps simply outlasted L-C, before going on to defeat Idaho Falls 8-5 in the championship.
"This team has nothing to really hang their heads about," Twins coach Kyle Blackwell said. "(To go) twelve innings with a team like that that turns around a couple hours later and wins a state championship, it's good. ... Even though we didn't finish the way we ultimately wanted to, it wasn't from lack of effort."
After the Caps collected five runs in the home-half of the first inning, it took L-C (38-11) until the third to come up with a decisive response.
With two successive outs to open the top of the third inning, L-C proceeded with six near-consecutive hits, including Jake Munoz's triple and doubles apiece from Riley Way and Luke White, eventually scoring seven runs and taking the lead 8-5.
Finding themselves down 11-10 after the seventh inning, the Twins' opened the eighth with a homerun from Josh Moore.
They'd take the lead 12-11 with another run in the eigth, before the Caps tied the score in the bottom half of the inning. It remained tied at 12 for the next three innings until Boise scored the winning run.
"We missed just a few opportunities, and it ended up costing us," Blackwell said.
The game could have ended in the eleventh, when relief pitcher Logan Chase worked his way out of a no-outs, loaded-bases situtation, making up for an earlier inning when L-C packed the bases with no outs but failed to score a run.
"That's how baseball works," Blackwell said. "It all comes back around."
L-C Twins 017 000 220 000-12 17 2
Boise Caps 500 321 010 001-13 20 2
Julian Washburn, Michael Murphy (5), Michael Jensen (5), Logan Chase (10) and Cole Grijalva. Colby Paul, Ryan Yost (5), Payton Hamilton (8) and Hunter Wendiel.
Lewis-Clark Twins hits - Riley Way 3 (2B), Jake Munoz 2 (2B, 3B), Chandler Tibbets 3 (2B), Luke White 2 (2B), Jaden Phillips 2 (2B), Danny Robinson, Grijalva 2, Alex Light 2 (2B), Josh Moore (HR).
Boise Caps hits - Jordan Godeny-Scott 2, Wendiel (2B), Brad Jekiech 3, Nolan Jekiech 3 (2 2B), Colby Roberts 3, Carson Wong 3, Garrett Young, Hamilton 2 (2B).