High school baseball tourneys give area teams chance to see different competition

Mar. 23—In eastern Washington and northern Idaho, there's little doubt baseball is one of the most prevalent high school sports in the community.

Most schools within the area offer the sport. For the small schools who are unable to field a team, players often will don the uniforms of another school for the sole purpose of getting time in on the field.

In a two-hour radius of the valley, there are Idaho teams at all levels. In Washington, there are teams ranging from Class 1B to 2A.

It's not a rarity for teams to play up or down looking for competition, but it's not commonplace either.

But having tournaments where teams come from outside the area is something that brings communities together.

"I think when you look at this community, it's a baseball community," said Asotin coach Jim Holman, whose school just conducted its tournament this past week.

It's an event that is almost two decades old and, in addition to acting as a fundraiser for the program, it also creates an opportunity for teams from the two neighboring states in different classifications to compete against each other.

"When football season is done is when I start working on the tournament," said Holman, who also is Asotin's football coach. "And it's actually coaches messaging me and emailing me wanting to come down and participate."

There's also benefits to local businesses, namely small restaurants and gas stations that get the patronage of visiting teams.

But for a long time, the Asotin tournament was one of the only events to bring in a high volume of teams, and most of them hailed from eastern Washington.

Now, Clearwater Valley is hopeful to rectify some of that.

The high school in Kooskia will conduct its second Southfork Slugfest today through Saturday.

"The idea behind (the tournament) was to do a North vs. South kind of format," said Clearwater Valley athletic director Allen Hutchens, an idea that's similar to the wrestling tournament the school hosts yearly. "This year we have Liberty Christian, North Star and we tried to do another Whitepine League team and one other area non-league team. Last year, we had Pomeroy and Clarkston (junior varsity). This year, we have Orofino. So, the main concept behind it was to have a tournament here to fundraise some money, but also do it north vs. south and get some teams up here that we don't normally play."

This year's tourney also will have a skills challenge and a team barbeque.

The skills challenge will consist of a home run derby in which two players from each team will participate and hit off a pitching machine. A home run will be two points and a hit will be one point. There also will be fielding and throwing competitions and timed relays.

The skills challenge and barbecue take place at 5 p.m. today.

"(It's) just a chance to mingle and get to visit with different coaches, players amongst themselves," Hutchens said.

Like with the Asotin tournament, the CV event provides teams a chance to play teams at different levels they otherwise wouldn't play, or play very rarely, with the added wrinkle that it's a wood-bat tournament.

"The kids are excited," Hutchens said. "You got a team like North Star, this is their first year in 2A, they used to be a 1A school and they competed right away for the title. It is great for our kids here to see the different styles, see the bigger teams.

"A lot of these kids in Kooskia, when we go to state football and things like that, some of those kids have never been out of the area. It's great on both ends."

The hope is for the tournament to grow to eight teams next year.

The Rams open the tournament at noon today against Whitepine League foe Kendrick.

Kowatsch can be reached at 208-848-2277, tkowatsch@lmtribune.com or on Twitter @Teren_Kowatsch.