COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen knew all year that they’d be heading to the class AA state tournament as the tournament host.

Friday night, trailing 4-0 and with two outs in the seventh inning, they dug down, and earned that spot they’d been playing for.

The Lums rallied to beat the Northern Lakes Mountaineers 7-6 in a loser-out game at the class AA Area A (district) tournament at Thorco Field.

Coeur d’Alene (30-19), the second seed, will play the top-seeded Lewis-Clark Twins (27-22) today at 1 p.m. in the championship game.

If the Lums win, a second title game would follow.

Earlier Friday, Lewis-Clark beat Northern Lakes 8-7 in 11 innings to earn its spot in the title game — but didn’t actually clinch a state berth until later Friday night, when Coeur d’Alene eliminated Northern Lakes.

It was a roller coaster day for Northern Lakes (18-26) — a first-year program with players from Rathdrum, after splitting from Prairie — which jumped out to a 7-0 lead over Lewis-Clark in the top of the first inning before the Twins rallied, then led Coeur d’Alene late in the game before the Lums came back.

Prairie received its second straight dose of tough luck again on Friday. The fourth-seeded Cardinals (8-37) were eliminated by Coeur d’Alene 9-8 on a walk-off hit. On Thursday, Prairie lost to Lewis-Clark on a walk-off hit.

Coeur d’Alene 9, Prairie 8: The fourth-seeded Prairie Cardinals played the top two seeds (No. 1 Lewis-Clark Twins and No. 2 Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen) of the tournament as close as you can get.

But both games ended in losses for the Cardinals, who were eliminated.

After the Twins beat the Cardinals with a walk-off hit Thursday, Coeur d’Alene’s Devin Kluss hit a walk-off, two-RBI, line drive single that bounced off pitcher Jared Porter in the ninth inning Friday.

“They’re a little down,” Prairie coach Brian Fowler said of his team. “I mean it’s the end of the season for us. Out there (in the outfield after the game) I just told them how proud I was of them. It took us a while but I think we finally figured out how to be competitive at this level of baseball. I couldn’t be more proud of them, but it’s a sad moment. But just to be in this moment to be able to be sad. We started off the season getting beat by 20 runs or something like that, so to come out here against quality ball clubs like the three teams that are here and do what we did, you can’t be too ashamed.”

The Lumbermen led 7-3 after seven innings but the Cardinals scored four runs in the eighth inning to tie the game. Prairie added another run in the ninth to go ahead 8-7.

Prairie 110 001 041 — 8 7 3

Coeur d’Alene 130 012 002 — 9 14 3

One out when winning run scored.

Dalton Lozier, Jared Porter (6) and Jerrett Plunkett; Conner Cardinel, Parker Gabrielson (8), Elliott Sparks (8) and Grant Wade. W — Sparks (9-0), L — Porter (2-9).

HITS: Pra — Lozier, Bailey 2, Porter, Plunkett, Benson, Schulze. Cd’A — Green 4, Vaudreuil 2, Wade, Hall, Conigliaro, Garza, Slusser 2, Carter, Kluss. 2B — Plunkett, Green, Vaudreuil 2. HR — Schulze.

Lewis-Clark 8, Northern Lakes 7: It looked pretty good for Northern Lakes early in its battle against Lewis-Clark in the semifinal game.

The Mountaineers put up seven runs in the top of the first inning. But, the Twins chipped away at the deficit throughout the game, and won on a walk-off error by Northern Lakes.

A Northern Lakes throw bounced into Lewis-Clark’s dugout, and the Twins’ Jaden Phillips was able to jog home for the winning run.

It was the second consecutive walk-off win for the Twins, as they beat the Prairie Cardinals Thursday night on a walk-off.

“It’s always exciting when somebody walks off to get a win,” said Twins shortstop Tyler Gay, who had three hits in the game. “We had to work our way back from a 7-0 deficit starting in the first inning but we notched our way back through the whole time … Walkoffs are awesome.”

The Twins slowly chipped away at the Mountaineers’ lead by scoring one or two runs in innings two through sixth.

“I just told them to wake up a little bit and chip away,” Lewis-Clark coach Allen Balmer said. “We’ve got nine innings. Seven runs isn’t anything in nine innings. We can chip away just fine and that’s just what they did. They took it one pitch at a time and did a good job of it.”

After the first-inning offensive outburst by Northern Lakes, the Mountaineers didn’t score a run for the rest of the game.

“I don’t think we took the foot off the gas,” Northern Lakes coach Pat Capone said. “I think we just started playing not to win. We were, I don’t want to say afraid to fail, but we got a little tentative. We played a little bit tight. That’s not Northern Lakes baseball. Unfortunately, this is how the game is. Momentum shifts both ways. They tied the game up and then we killed the momentum and then basically the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th inning was just a dogfight. Unfortunately, we didn’t come out on top.”

N. Lakes 700 000 000 00 — 7 14 9

L-C 012 121 000 01 — 8 15 4

One out when winning run scored.

Brian Howell, Dalton Strong (6), Kris Jackson (8) and Jared McDaniel; Mikel Jensen, Austen Jones (7) and Jessup Scott. W — Jones. L — Jackson.

HITS: NL — Wrotenbury, Cooper 3, Jackson 2, McDaniel 2, Strong, Pote 4, Bodak. L-C — Scott, Gay 3, Moore, White 2, Tibbits 3, Jones 2, Olson 2, Stamper. 2B — Jackson, Pote. HR — White.

Coeur d’Alene 7, Northern Lakes 6: Cody Garza was just worried about being a team player when he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded trailing 5-3 in the seventh inning.

All that worry went away when his three-run double landed in the left-center field gap, pushing the Lumbermen past the Mountaineers in a loser-out game.

“It was very much needed for us,” second-year Coeur d’Alene coach Zach Clanton said. “I think our bats have been sleeping for a long time and I think they erupted with some authority to say the least.”

“I was just worried about doing something for my team in that spot,” said Garza of the at-bat. “Especially with two outs, it was a little suspenseful, so I had to pull through for our guys.”

Devin Kluss hit an RBI double to push the Coeur d’Alene lead to 7-5 in the seventh.

Northern Lakes right fielder Dalton Strong had four RBIs, three coming on a sixth-inning home run to give Northern Lakes a 4-0 lead.

Capone declined comment following the game.

N. Lakes 000 103 101 — 6 7 2

Cd’A 000 001 60x — 7 8 2

Blake Wrotenbury, Kenny Cooper (7) and Jared McDaniel; Steven Vaudreuil, Elliott Sparks (7), Cody Garza (9) and Grant Wade. W — Sparks (8-0). L — Cooper. S — Garza (1).

HITS: NL — Bodak, Howell 2, Strong 2, Wrotenbury, Cooper, McDaniel, Jackson. Cd’A — Gabrielson 2, Kluss 3, Conigliaro, Garza, Hall. 2B — Kluss 2, Garza. HR — Strong.