With a season ending sweep of Twin Falls, the Pocatello Runnin’ Rebels put themselves in a first-place tie with Idaho Falls for first place in Area C.

    The tie would be broken by a coin flip, the winner of the flip is the No.1 seed in the district tournament that begins Thursday, the loser No. 2.

    The Runnin’ Rebel lost the flip giving them the No. 2 seed and opening round match-up with host Twin Falls at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

    The two teams will meet for the fifth time in the last 10 days with Pocatello winning the previous four.

    Runnin’ Rebels head coach Vinnie Benavidez and his staff knows beating a team for a fifth time will be tough, especially with the game being on the Cowboys’ home field.

    “Twin Falls has always been one of the top teams in the state of Idaho every year,” Benavidez said. “They are at home and play the game the right way. They play small ball and put runners on the move and we don’t know our assignments. It’s going to be a long night for us.”

    But Benavidez feels his team is ready for the challenge. They have bounced back from a season worst five-game losing streak to close the season with four straight wins.

    The team remembers the pain of last year’s tournament where they were eliminated from district championship contention with a loss in the opening game on their home field and are motivated to make sure it does not happen again.

    “It still haunts them, they still see it and that’s why some of the kids came back and played,” Benavidez said of coming up short in the quest for a district and state championship. “It hurts, but the one thing that is good for us is we have the experience to get back there. Last year we finished second in the state tournament but we did not win our district tournament and that’s what we want to do.”

    Pocatello finished the regular season 30-7 and for the most part played pretty well according to Benavidez. The one hiccup unfortunately came late in the season and ended up costing the team the district’s top seed.

    The Runnin’ Rebels lost five games in a row, including an 11-2 loss to Rocky Mt. in the Boise tournament and a sweep at the hands of Idaho Falls.

    The losses taught the team that they have to continue to work if they hope to carry on the success from earlier in the year.

    “We like to talk about having swag and confidence,” Benavidez said. “You have to have that but you also have to come out and play the game. We won a lot of games early and as a coaching staff we were not satisfied. We told the team they were not doing the little things and one day the would face a team that would expose them. And we did.”

    Now what happened in the regular season goes to the back burner and this weeks’ tournament is the team’s focus.

    Benavidez said they had a good practice on Tuesday and he hopes it carries into today and beyond.

    The team is loading with pitching. Kade Teter, Bo Burrup and Bodie Cooper are the top three arms. Benavidez also has the luxury of having a deep bullpen. But with tournament games nine innings as opposed to seven like they were the rest of the year, having someone step up and eat some of the middle innings will be key.

    Benavidez hopes Bradford Peck is that guy.

    “Bradford likes to start and be the dude, but he can come out and give us a couple of innings everyday because of how good of shape he is in,” Benavidez said. “He runs everyday, he ices his arm everyday and he works out everyday and a guy like him is huge for our club.”

    If the team hopes to accomplish their goal of winning a district championship and moving on to the state tournament, Benavidez said they will have to take their game to the next level and play their best baseball of the year something they’ve not done yet.

    The Runnin’ Rebels begin the quest for a district title Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Twin Falls against the host Cowboys.