The games will go on starting today, because that’s the way that he would have wanted it.

But the recent tragedy involving Reggie Nault won’t be forgotten by the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen as they open the American Legion Class AA Area A (district) tournament tonight at Thorco Field in Coeur d’Alene.

Nault, 16, is presumed drowned in a boating accident on Tuesday night in Lake Coeur d’Alene. Nault recently completed his sophomore season at Coeur d’Alene High.

“With Reg, a lot of these guys on this team are great friends with him,” said Coeur d’Alene Legion coach Zach Clanton, who coached Nault last summer with the Lums. “The Coeur d’Alene High guys played with him and the Lake City guys played against him. I texted with the guys on Tuesday when I’d heard what happened and told them there’s a time to think about anything but baseball, and this was it. As much of a competitor as he was, he’d want us to be out on the field playing.”

Clanton said the Lumbermen will wear a patch on their uniforms to remember Nault, who played for the Lumbermen in 2014 before moving on to play for the Club Spokane Dodgers Under-18 team this summer.

“I hope they use it as motivation,” Clanton said. “We’ve got a great group of seniors players from Coeur d’Alene (High) that knew him like Gibson (Green) and Elliott (Sparks) that were closer to him than anyone on the team. We lean on them to be our rock and fall into that leadership role for that support.

We’ve got the right group of guys to get through this as a team.”

Lewis-Clark (25-22) opens the tournament against Prairie (8-35) tonight at 5, followed by Northern Lakes (17-24) against Coeur d’Alene (28-18) at 8.

“We beat up on Lakeland (Northern Lakes) earlier this year, then they got us twice at their place,” Clanton said. “I expect a hard-fought weekend. We’ll have to bang the ball around and play some solid defense.”

All tournament games will be nine innings, rather than the usual seven played during the regular season. Coeur d’Alene has already advanced to state as the tournament host. The top finisher out of Lewis-Clark, Prairie and Northern Lakes also advances to state starting Tuesday at Thorco Field.

“I’ve been limiting pitch counts knowing I was going to ride the horses,” Clanton said. “Our pitch counts might be in the 130s. For whatever reason, games are two innings longer, but it seems like a lifetime. We’ve just got to avoid the big inning and we should be good to go.”

Coeur d’Alene started the season 17-1.

“We went into a little bit of a lull in the dog days of summer,” Clanton said. “Sometimes seeing that we are in state already, we let up a little. We need to find some consistency on the mound and play better on the defensive side.”

Lewis-Clark took 3 of 4 against Coeur d’Alene and swept Prairie and Northern Lakes in league play.

“The league was dogfights all the way across,” Clanton said. “I’m sure our guys are looking forward to seeing Lewis-Clark again. Northern Lakes has been more competitive since they got their college kids back and play with a bit of an edge on their shoulder.”

First-year Prairie coach Brian Fowler likes the way his team has been playing of late.

“I’m happy with the way we’ve been swinging the bats as of late,” Fowler said. “But, to be competitive and give ourselves a chance to move on, we will have to play great defensive baseball. Our margin for error against good competition like we will see at the district tournament is very small, so we cannot do anything to beat ourselves.”

CLASS AA AREA A TOURNAMENT

At Thorco Field, Coeur d'Alene

Thursday

Game 1 - No. 1 Lewis-Clark (25-22) vs. No. 4 Prairie (8-35), 5 p.m.

Game 2 - No. 2 Coeur d'Alene (28-18) vs. No. 3 Northern Lakes (17-24), 8.

Friday

Game 3 - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 1 p.m. (loser out)

Game 4 - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 4

Game 5 - Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 3, 7 (loser out)

Saturday

Game 6 - Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 1 p.m. (championship game)

Game 7 - Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6, 4 (if-necessary game)