After lost season, Timberline baseball roars back for a state title. It wasn’t alone.

The coronavirus pandemic robbed high school athletes of their spring season in 2020. But Treasure Valley baseball teams made up for a bit Saturday, winning four of the five state baseball titles in 2021.

Timberline (5A), Bishop Kelly (4A), Weiser (3A) and Nampa Christian (2A) all hoisted championship banners around the state, adding an exclamation point to a season that began with fingers crossed as teams navigated COVID-19 safety measures.

The only classification without a Boise-area champion was 1A, where North Star Charter finished second in its inaugural season.

5A BASEBALL STATE TOURNAMENT

TIMBERLINE WINS ANOTHER TITLE: The scoreboard at Timberline stands crowded with the years of previous state champions. But the Wolves will have to find room for another one.

Timberline routed Eagle 12-4 on Saturday, winning the program’s eighth state title since the school opened 22 years ago and giving the Wolves the opportunity to put up some fresh paint on the scoreboard.

“It’s honestly unreal,” Timberline catcher Junior Garcia said. “I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was 8. I’ve always wanted to do it. Just to be with these boys, it’s crazy. I don’t even think it’s real right now.”

The Wolves (24-3) stormed Caldwell’s Wolfe Field on Saturday, piling atop pitcher Logan Miller after he recorded the final out. That wild celebration partially soothed last year’s disappointment, when the coronavirus pandemic canceled a season Timberline entered with state title expectations just as it was getting started.

Timberline senior Dylan Pike, his voice still raspy from the celebration, said the Wolves made sure to include last year’s seniors in this year’s run.

“We just opened our family to them,” Pike said. “We were doing this for them. … Losing that opportunity to do it with them (last year), we just wanted to make sure we got this one for them.”

Eagle (21-7) drew first blood Saturday, scoring a single run in the second inning. But single runs don’t faze 5A’s top run-scoring offense.

The Wolves answered with six runs in the third inning to put the game out of reach. Pike and Garcia both delivered two-run, bases-loaded singles in the inning for the bulk of the damage.

“When we start rolling, there’s nobody in the state — or anybody that we’ve ever faced — that can stop us,” Pike said. “When everyone in our lineup is rolling, we’re a steamroll. We can’t be stopped.”

Timberline played add on, scoring in every inning the rest of the way, including four runs in the sixth. But Eagle made one last threat.

The Mustangs cut the lead to 8-4 in the top of the sixth and had two runners on with just one out. So Timberline turned to Logan Miller, a junior pitcher committed to Oregon State.

The right-hander had only thrown eight innings this season as he nursed a sore back. But with a state title on the line and a doctor’s assurance he couldn’t do any more damage to it, the Wolves put the ball in his hand.

Miller only needed one pitch to get out of the jam, inducing an inning-ending double play and then throwing a scoreless seventh inning to set off a celebration more than a year in the making.

Pike, Garcia and Timberline coach Casey Coberly all said a year away from the baseball diamond made Saturday’s championship even more meaningful.

“These guys — as well as I — live, breathe and eat baseball,” Coberly said. “So it was a tough one. But they handled it well and they just continued to put in the work.”

ROCKY MOUNTAIN TAKES THIRD: Emilio Bengoechea’s walk-off single through the left side of the infield lifted the Grizzlies to an 8-7 win over Mountain View in a seesaw battle.

Rocky Mountain (22-6) led 6-3 entering the seventh. Mountain View (19-12) rallied with four runs in the top of the inning to take the lead. But Douglas’ two-run, bases-loaded single sent the Grizzlies home with a trophy.

4A BASEBALL STATE TOURNAMENT

BISHOP KELLY ENDS TITLE DROUGHT: The Knights beat conference rival Columbia 5-1 at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, clinching their first state title since 2010.

“We’ve had a lot of good teams since 2010,” Bishop Kelly coach Jeff Cammann said. “It just shows you how tough it is to bring it home. It means a ton with last year being cut short. We had a great team last year, and those guys really set the wheels in motion for this to happen.”

Bishop Kelly (22-5) nursed a 1-0 lead entering the seventh before Caden Casagrande cleared the bases with a three-run double to left field. The Washington State commit also drove in the winning runs with doubles in Thursday’s and Friday’s victories, finishing the three-day tournament 7-for-11 with five doubles and eight RBIs.

“He’s a guy who capitalizes and takes advantage of those moments,” Cammann said of Casagrande’s timely hits. “In clutch spots, that’s the guy we want up in those situations. He believes in himself, and every guy in that dugout knows he’s going to get the job done.”

Those runs proved necessary as Columbia scored on an error in the bottom of the seventh. But Bishop Kelly pitcher Colin Dempsey quickly induced the game’s final out to seal the state title.

Dempsey threw a complete game, holding the Wildcats to one unearned run on three hits while striking out three.

“It was the best game of the year he’s pitched,” Cammann said. “And it couldn’t have come in a bigger situation. Even though it was a 1-0 game, he was never wavering. There never was a doubt in his mind he would get it done.”

The loss ends Columbia’s season at 15-12 and with a second-place trophy, the Wildcats’ best since winning it all in their inaugural season in 2007.

RIDGEVUE WINS CONSOLATION TROPHY: Easton Amundson and Caden Steinmann combined to throw a no-hitter, leading the Warhawks to a 4-0 win over Bonneville and a trophy in their first state tournament appearance.

Amundson struck out four and walked none in three innings for Ridgevue (17-11). Steinmann struck out five and walked one in four innings.

3A BASEBALL STATE TOURNAMENT

WEISER GETS FIRST TITLE: The Wolverines capped their Cinderella run with the first state championship in program history, beating perennial power Fruitland 9-4 on its home field.

Weiser (24-7) needed to win a play-in game just to qualify for the state tournament and entered with few expectations outside of its own dugout. But the Wolverines surprised everyone to bring home the state title.

“We embraced that nobody counted on us,” said Weiser coach Bowe vonBrethorst, a 1993 graduate of the school. “We embraced nobody giving us credit. We knew we had some pitchers and some good arms. And man, it worked out perfectly.”

The Wolverines opened the tournament by upsetting reigning champ, previously undefeated and No. 1-ranked Marsh Valley 12-10 on Beau Shields’ three-run, walk-off home run. Then they knocked off Kimberly, the second-ranked team in the final coaches’ poll, 8-6, to get another shot at Fruitland.

Weiser went 0-2 against the Grizzlies during the regular season. But it grabbed an early lead on Beau Shield’s run-scoring single in the first and never trailed in the game that counted most.

Shields finished 4-for-4 with four RBIs, Brett Spencer went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs, and Willy Shirts finished 3-for-5 to lead the way to an elusive championship.

“Late in the season, we had a little dip that started at Homedale,” vonBrethorst said. “I felt a change then. The kids decided, ‘Hey, this isn’t us. Let’s go.’ And they responded.”

2A BASEBALL STATE TOURNAMENT

NAMPA CHRISTIAN COMPLETES PERFECT SEASON: The Trojans (26-0) wrapped up an undefeated season with a 4-3 win over Malad at Pocatello’s Halliwell Park.

Carson Atwood led the way, holding Malad (21-4) to three runs (two earned) on two hits while striking out 10 for the complete-game victory.

Nampa Christian’s Landon Cheney opened the scoring with an RBI triple in the first inning. Dane Bradshaw and Zach Merritt also drove in runs for the Trojans, who scratched back-to-back one-run victories to earn veteran coach Marc Harris his 11th state title at the school.

MELBA FALLS IN CONSOLATION FINAL: Melba committed three errors in the sixth inning, allowing Firth to score four runs and rally for a 5-2 victory in the consolation championship. The loss ends the Mustangs’ season at 15-10.

1A BASEBALL STATE TOURNAMENT

NORTH STAR CHARTER TAKES SECOND: Genesee’s Jack Johnson threw a complete-game, one-hit shutout and struck out eight for the Bulldogs (15-9), leading them to a 6-0 win over North Star Charter in the 1A championship at Orofino High.

The Huskies (15-2) finished their first season with the runner-up trophy.

Meanwhile, Horseshoe Bend lost to Prairie 11-10 in eight innings in the third-place game.