Lake City High School

The victory gave the Timberwolves their first regional title since 2002, and qualified them for state for the first time since 2006.

"I can breathe again now, regularly," Lake City coach Laura Tolzmann said.

That's because a couple of hours earlier, Lake City committed six errors and was on the verge of getting dumped into the consolation bracket before rallying for three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Lewiston 6-5 at Lake City.

In the title game, Lela Work pitched a three-hitter with 11 strikeouts for Lake City, and drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single in the fourth inning.

Work and catcher Jessica Ross are the only players left from Lake City's last state tournament team -- and the T-Wolves had to rally in the seventh inning of the state play-in game that year to get there.

"Doing it this way is much better -- and less stressful," Ross said.

Lake City (22-3) advances to state May 14-16 at Ramsey Park in Coeur d'Alene. The T-Wolves open at 3 p.m. vs. the loser of tonight's District 3 championship game between Timberline (24-4) and Borah (21-7).

At Ramsey Park, Coeur d'Alene beat Post Falls 3-0, then Post Falls eliminated Lewiston with a five-inning, rain-shortened 1-0 victory.

The Lewiston-Lake City and Post Falls-Coeur d'Alene games started Tuesday, but were suspended by rain in the top of the third inning.

Post Falls (18-8) will play at Coeur d'Alene (17-9) today at 4 p.m. in a loser-out game, for a spot in Saturday's play-in game at Fruitland vs. the fifth-place team from District 3.

Lewiston, which placed fourth at state last year, finished 14-10.

Lake City 5, Coeur d'Alene 0: Ross reached on a throwing error to lead off the fourth. Katie Rowe singled to center field, and a wild pitch moved them up to second and third. Work's single scored Ross and, one out later, Jennifer Robertson's groundout scored Rowe.

The last three innings were played in a steady rain.

In the bottom of the fifth, two walks and a wild pitch put T-Wolves on second and third. Hall singled up the middle to drive in a run, Jenna Fordham scored on a wild pitch, and Ross' fly ball to left scored Hall.

"After the first game with the comeback, I think we carried that momentum into the second game," Tolzmann said. "Lela was determined that we would get back there this year. I was proud of the way we kept hitting and kept hitting, and kept putting the ball into play, despite the crazy conditions."

Coeur d'Alene, which had won the last six regional titles, had just three hits on the day. Amber Coburn gave up three hits, struck out five and walked three.

"We just didn't hit the ball, period. End of quote," Coeur d'Alene coach Larry Bieber said. "We just didn't make things happen today. We were glad to win the first one, and hoping to win this one like we did last year."

Coeur d'Alene 000 000 0 -- 0 3 1

Lake City 000 230 x -- 5 3 2

Amber Coburn and Jessica Eppers; Lela Work and Jessica Ross. W -- Work (17-1). L -- Coburn.

HITS: Cd'A -- Brouillard, Ritzheimer, Coburn. LC -- Hall, Rowe, Work. 2B -- Brouillard.

Post Falls 1, Lewiston 0: Richelle Ashburn walked to lead off the fourth inning and Stephanie Peugh followed with a triple over the center fielder's head to drive in the lone run.

The game was called in the top of the sixth because of muddy field conditions, after Lewiston's first batter had reached second base with nobody out.

Blake Meredith pitched a one-hitter with five strikeouts for Post Falls. Two of the strikeouts came after Lewiston loaded the bases in the second with one out. Jessica Ulrich fanned seven for Lewiston.

"The kids are excited about going to Coeur d'Alene; we won both games there the first time," Post Falls coach Jack Foster said. "We've played better on the road than we have at home anyway."

Lewiston 000 00 -- 0 1 1

Post Falls 000 10 -- 1 2 1

Jessica Ulrich and Amanda Hoffman; Blake Meredith and Jordan Schoening. W -- Meredith (14-6). L -- Ulrich.

HITS: Lew -- Baldwin. PF -- Joseph, Peugh. 3B -- Peugh.

Lake City 6, Lewiston 5: Nicole Redd's two-out, two strike RBI single in the top of the seventh tied the game at 3 for Lewiston. Amanda Hoffman and Shaundee Garrett followed with run-scoring singles and the Bengals, who knocked No. 1 seed Lake City out of the regional tournament last year, had a 5-3 lead.

But the T-Wolves rallied for the winning runs with nobody out. Jamie Hall singled, and scored on Ross' double to the left field fence. Ross advanced to third on the throw home. She scored on Rowe's grounder to tie the game, and Rowe reached when the Bengals dropped the throw to first. Work doubled to the fence in right center to score Rowe with the winning run.

Work fanned 10 for Lake City. Lewiston's Ulrich struck out seven.

Lewiston 000 002 3 -- 5 7 3

Lake City 000 021 3 -- 6 7 6

Jessica Ulrich and Amanda Hoffman; Lela Work and Jessica Ross. W -- Work (16-1). L -- Ulrich.

HITS: Lew -- Redd 2, Baldwin, Kramer, Hoffman, Garrett, Ulrich. LC -- Ross 3, Chadderdon, Fordham, Hall, Work. 2B -- Ross 2, Work.

Coeur d'Alene 3, Post Falls 1: In a game which resumed on a different field at Ramsey, and with a new home plate umpire, Coburn had a no-hitter until two were out in the seventh, when Trojan leadoff hitter Bri Joseph hit an inside-the-park homer over the center fielder's head (the fastpitch fences were not up at Ramsey Park).

Coeur d'Alene got all three of its hits and scored all three runs on Tuesday, before the game was stopped due to rain in the top of the third inning. Nina Goodwin hit an RBI double to right field, and scored on Hailey Petit's single to right. Petit scored on Amanda Brouillard's ground single up the middle.

Coburn finished with 10 strikeouts, six walks and a hit batter. Meredith struck out nine, walked four and hit one.

Post Falls 000 000 1 -- 1 1 2

Coeur d'Alene 030 000 x -- 3 3 0

Blake Meredith and Jordan Schoening; Amber Coburn and Jessica Eppers. W -- Coburn. L -- Meredith (13-6).

HITS: PF -- Joseph. Cd'A -- Brouillard, Goodwin, Petit. 2B -- Goodwin. HR -- Joseph.