RATHDRUM - The Northern Lakes Mountaineers got over the Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen hump Wednesday by sweeping the Lums 2-1 and 9-8 at Lakeland High in a Class AA North Idaho League American Legion baseball doubleheader at Gorton Field.

"We've come a long ways from the first two times we played that team," Northern Lakes coach Pat Capone said.

"They put it on us pretty good the first time, the first two times we saw them. Today, we just competed our butts off and that's all I could ever ask as a coach."

Northern Lakes' Brian Howell had a lot to do with the two league wins on Wednesday.

"Offensively, he's been our most consistent hitter at the dish," Capone said. "He's also been our No. 1 on the mound. In order for us to go onto the state playoffs, Brian Howell is going to be a big reason of it."

Howell gave up one run on three hits while striking out three in the first game. At the plate, he went 4 for 7 on the day.

In the second game, Howell hit a three-run home run, which highlighted a nine-run second inning rally for the Mountaineers (15-22, 4-4 North Idaho League). It was Howell's first home run at any level of baseball.

"I wouldn't have rather done anything else, so it felt good, and especially to have guys on base," Howell said. "A solo home run really doesn't mean that much but to have guys on base, it was a 5-5 ball game at the time. That took us to 8-5, so that helped us out a lot, and it's just good to get the win after that too."

It turned out that Northern Lakes' nine-run inning was just enough for the win.

"We just got hot," Capone said of the Mountaineers' high-scoring inning. "We got on a roll. We had a couple things happen in that inning where we took extra bases and that's what we have to do. I think they had one or two errors in that inning and we just capitalized. It is one of those things, hitting is contagious, and we got hot in one inning. But after that we relaxed and we let them back in the ball game."

Coeur d'Alene (25-12, 7-5 North Idaho League) took a 5-0 lead in the second game before Northern Lakes exploded for nine runs.

"A home run out of Howell was a big time difference maker," Coeur d'Alene coach Zach Clanton said. "It makes us play catch up. It's tough to play from behind. It really is. Our team hasn't had to do that a lot. We won a lot of games playing ahead the whole time."

In the first game, Kenny Cooper was the hero. Cooper hit a walkoff single with one out in the seventh inning, scoring Mike Bodak from second base.

"Kenny Cooper had a huge day for us," Capone said. "It may not show up in the stat line but that kid was instrumental to our success today."

Coeur d'Alene will next play Tuesday at the Baden Invite in the Seattle area and Northern Lakes will play a league doubleheader against the Lewis-Clark Twins Sunday starting at 11 a.m at Lakeland High.

FIRST GAME

Game ended with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Coeur d'Alene 001 000 0 - 1 3 0

Northern Lakes 000 010 1 - 2 9 2

Game ended with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Dominic Conigliaro and Grant Wade; Brian Howell and Jared McDaniel. W - Howell. L - Conigliaro.

HITS: Cd'A - Green, Hall, Wade. N.L. - Wrotenbury 2, Cooper, Howell 2, Pote, Strong, Bodak, Hansen. 2B - Green.

SECOND GAME

Coeur d'Alene 410 102 0 - 8 9 1

Northern Lakes 090 000 x - 9 13 4

Kris Jackson, Blake Wrotenbury (3), Kenny Cooper (6) and Jared McDaniel; Connor Cardinel, Elliott Sparks (2) and Parker Gabrielson. W - Wrotenbury. L - Cardinel.

HITS: Cd'A - Vaudreuil 2, Conigliaro, Green 3, Hall, Garza, Slusser. N.L. - Wrotenbury, Cooper, Jackson 3, Howell 2, McDaniel 3, Strong 2, Hansen. 2B - Vaudreuil, Garza, Jackson, McDaniel. 3B - McDaniel. HR - Green (1), Howell (1).