The Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen and Lewis-Clark Twins represented Area A (North Idaho) in the American Legion baseball AA state tournament this week at Thorco Field in Coeur d'Alene.

The Lumbermen, who were eliminated from the state tournament after going 0-2, clinched a berth at state because they are the host, so they were going to state no matter what happened at the Area A district tournament.

But with how many walk-offs and close games that occurred at the district tournament last week, any two teams from the area could have made the short trip to Thorco for the state tournament this week.

"When it comes down to it there's one tournament like that at the end of the year," Prairie Cardinals coach Brian Fowler said. "Anybody has a chance to go on. I think anybody could have advanced out of that group."

OUT OF the six district games played, four of them were decided by one run and three of those four were walk-offs.

Prairie and the Northern Lakes Mountaineers probably had the toughest luck in the district tournament.

The Cardinals dropped its opening game of the tournament 8-7 to the Twins after a walk-off in the ninth inning. The next day in a loser-out game, the Cardinals lost 9-8 to the Lumbermen on another walk-off in the ninth.

"It was definitely disappointing," Fowler said. But with our team, we should have everybody back next year. I just tried to spin it to them that it should just drive you to get better in the offseason and come back with more hunger next year to do better."

As for the Mountaineers, they got off to a good start in the tournament, winning their first game against the Lumbermen.

The next day, though, was going to be a tough one.

In their first game that day, the Mountaineers put up seven runs in the first inning against the Twins but lost 8-7 after a walk-off in the 11th inning.

The loss was tough enough but after 11 innings of baseball, Northern Lakes had to shake off the loss and gear up for the Lumbermen about 30 minutes later in a loser-out game.

"It was heartbreaking," Northern Lakes coach Pat Capone said. "It was really a tough day at the office. It was heartbreaking, especially the Lewis-Clark game. One thing that it really spoke to is the mental toughness of my guys and how we responded in the Coeur d'Alene game. We had a 5-1 lead going into the seventh inning and that speaks volumes about my guys and just how tough they were in order to rebound and to put ourselves in that position after a heartbreaking defeat. It was impressive."

The Lumbermen eventually came back and eliminate the Mountaineers with a 7-6 victory.

On the other hand, the Twins and the Lumbermen - the top two seeds at districts - came away on the better end. Both teams used two one-run victories each to advance to the district title game.

"Nothing would have surprised me coming out of the district tournament, who was going to be at state," Coeur d'Alene coach Zach Clanton said. "In the end, I think the two best teams came out but it wouldn't have surprised me one bit if Lakeland or Prairie ended up going there. That's just kind of how it goes in baseball."

The walk-offs and close games didn't stop at districts though.

At the state tournament, there were five games decided by one run heading into Friday's games.

If you have been around Thorco Field the last week enjoying some baseball, you probably have witnessed one of the best district and state legion tournaments in a while.

Garrett Cabeza is a sports intern for The Press. Contact him at gcabeza@cdapress.com.