Twins open districts with win

The Lewis-Clark Twins buried their opponent in such a way that scoreboard operators, in the midst of a third-inning outbreak from the home team, actually turned to a paper manual for tips on how to use the device's overflow function.

As laborious as the Class AA northern Idaho district tournament opener may have been for Thursday's losers, the Prairie Cardinals of Post Falls, it was equally so for those in the press box keeping score as the Twins continued to illuminate the electronic board in right field, finally stopping in the seventh inning when it read 35-2.

The result, as lopsided as it may have been, didn't amount to anything more than one postseason victory for the Twins, who advance to play the Coeur d'Alene Lumberjacks today at 3:30 on the LCSC campus.

Cd'A upended the Northern Lake Mountaineers 9-2 in Thursday's early game at Harris Field.

While the 12-run third inning represented L-C's largest eruption, it certainly didn't stand alone on a night that also saw the Twins produce an eight-run fifth inning and a six-run sixth. Then there were the smaller flurries: four runs in the first, three in the second and two in the fourth. "I think people, when they see the newspapers tomorrow, might think it's a typo," pitcher Jake Munoz said.

No typo.

In total, the Twins pounded out 22 hits, three of which were home runs, and racked up seven more extra-base hits in addition to the dingers from Kolt Olson, Chandler Tibbits and Josh Moore.

Buried deep beneath the offensive numbers that explained the best offensive outing of L-C's season, and perhaps its last 10 seasons, was the pitching gem thrown by Munoz.

After conceding one run in the first, Munoz went virtually untouched the rest of the way, allowing just two more hits and no runs. In only five innings, he notched nine strikeouts and walked just one.

And he did it all with essentially one pitch.

"The one or two guys were able to catch up to my fastball, but I guess I was just a little bit more overpowering tonight than I expected," Munoz said.

Overpowering with an unwavering command of the strike zone. Munoz's pitch count exceeded 70, but the Lewiston High grad only uncorked 20 balls.

"He attacked the strike zone, he was good," L-C coach Kyle Blackwell said. "He's a leader for us, he brings a good mound presence."

With only a fraction of the velocity that Munoz was throwing at, and nowhere close to the same command of the zone, Prairie pitchers struggled all evening.

Nine Twins were hit by pitch and seven more were walked. One L-C player was plunked three times. The Cardinals also committed four errors.

All three of the L-C blasts sailed over the right field wall. The Twins were nearly held scoreless in the second inning before Moore unloaded a three-run shot with two outs. Olson's shot in the third also came with two outs and also scored three to give L-C its 10th, 11th and 12th runs of the inning. Tibbits rounded things out with another three-run homer, this coming in the fifth inning.

"Out hitters responded good, obviously," Blackwell said.

Ten separate Twins had a hit and the home team was paced by Jaden Phillips, who totaled four. Luke White finished with three hits - two of which were doubles - as did Tibbits, who legged out a triple in the third inning.

"Obviously there was something in the air tonight," Munoz said.

Prairie Cardinals 100 001 0- 2 4 4

Lewis-Clark Twins 43(12) 286 x-35 22 0

Jacob Elliott, Sheldon Sloan (3), Brandon Busch (3) and Dusty Weeks. Jake Munoz, Alex Light (6) and Jackson Fuller.

Prairie hits - Weeks, Jerrett Plunkett 2 (3B), Brock Zeller.

Lewis-Clark hits - Riley Way (2B), Kolt Olson 2 (HR), Chris Powell, Chandler Tibbits 3 (3B, HR), Luke White 3 (2-2B), Josh Moore 2 (HR), Julian Washburn, Jaden Phillips 4 (2B), Danny Robinson 3 (2-2B), Fuller 2.