COEUR d’ALENE — Dylan Bradbury has been a gamer as long as Northern Lakes coach Al Bevacqua has known him.

On Friday night, in Bevacqua’s debut as Mountaineers coach, he didn’t let him down when he needed him.

Bradbury — who pitched the final five innings, allowing two unearned runs — singled in Ryan Pote with the go-ahead run with one out in the eighth inning as Northern Lakes beat the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen 8-7 in eight innings in a North Idaho League American Legion baseball game at Thorco Field.

“He’s a competitor,” said Bevacqua of Bradbury. “He gets up there and has a good approach. I’ve known him for a while through his dad (Lakeland High baseball coach Jason Bradbury) and he’s always been a competitor. I love what I saw out of him tonight. He’s going to be one of the rocks we lean on this season, and he’s only a sophomore.”

Coeur d’Alene opened a 5-3 lead after four innings and held the advantage until the sixth inning, when the Mountaineers capatalized on a fielding error to score four runs and take a 7-5 lead.

“We want to get better each inning and get stronger as the season goes,” Bevacqua said. “That’s just going to lead to a habit toward the end of the season and getting into a habit of playing our best baseball at the right time later this season. Our youth was showing in the first part of the game. It’s our first game under the lights, and we were a little nervous. But we played great ball. It was all them, and they did a heck of a job.”

Dalton Strong finished with three hits, including two doubles, for Northern Lakes in its season opener.

“I think all three coaches were reminding the kids it’s play ball, not play work,” Bevacqua said. “We just went out and play baseball, and let it fall where it may. I couldn’t be happier with this group of kids. They’ve got great things ahead of them. They’ve just got to believe.”

The teams will meet again on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Thorco Field.

Jarred Hall hit a two-run single to tie the game at 7 in the sixth inning for Coeur d’Alene (2-3), but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

“It was one of those deals with a lot of zeros and wasted innings I felt like,” Coeur d’Alene coach Zach Clanton said. “I just think the guys came out and played a big first couple of innings, then fell asleep for a few innings. More than anything, I thought the pitchers were behind in the count a little bit and we had some wasted at-bats. We still showed flashes of what we can do and stole some bases, but we had too many wasted opportunities.”

Coeur d’Alene combined to strike out nine Northern Lakes hitters in the game.

“Best part of baseball is that you get to play again pretty dang soon,” Clanton said. “We get a chance to get them back on Tuesday and give our horses a chance to get out there and slam the door on any momentum that they may have gotten today. Guys are starting to develop some roles going into league play and everyone is going to get the chance to play.”

Northern Lakes 200 104 01 — 8 11 3

Coeur d’Alene 410 002 00 — 7 7 2

Max Baker, Dylan Bradbury (3) and Jared McDaniel; Nate Phillips, Tom Robinson (5), Daniel Gunnerson (7) and Grant Wade. W — Bradbury (1-0). L — Gunnerson (1-1).

HITS: NL — Strong 4, Pote 2, Baker, Villanpando, McDaniel, Mackesy, Bradbury. Cd’A — Phillips, Compton, Garza, Hall, Reid, Hall, Wade. 2B — Strong 2. 3B — Garza.