SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. ­— To Coeur d’Alene Little League pitcher Chris Reynolds, the week at the Northwest Regional Little League tournament has been a lot of fun.

He’s had a chance to swim, hang out with friends, trade pins, and best of all, play baseball.

“This has been the best experience of my life,” Reynolds said.

However, for Reynolds and his Coeur d’Alene teammates, the best is yet to come.

Reynolds struck out 10 batters and allowed only one hit over five innings, while his teammates scratched out two runs and lifted CDA to a 2-0 victory over Boulder Arrowhead to win the Northwest Region final.

The team earned a trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa. Their first game will be Friday at 1:00 p.m. PDT against Michigan’s Grosse Pointe Woods-Shores Little League, the Great Lakes champions.

Jeff Smith, the team representative, said the last time a team from Idaho went to the Little League World Series was in 1999, when South Central Boise Little League advanced. At that time, the West Region included states currently in the West and Northwest Regions.

In 2012, Post Falls advanced to the Northwest Regional final, falling to Gresham, Ore.

Reynolds threw first-pitch strikes to 14 of the 21 batters he faced, and he opened four of his five innings with a strikeout. The only hit he allowed was a fourth-inning single to Jakob Wilcox, although he did walk three batters.

“I was just trying to throw strikes,” Reynolds said. “I wanted to take my time and relax.”

Catcher Avrey Cherry reached base three times and scored the second run in the fifth inning after reaching second base on an infield error. He moved to third on Jake Dannenberg’s infield ground out to second, and scored when Boulder Arrowhead pitcher Carson Jenkins couldn’t handle Reynolds hit back to the mound.

Coeur d’Alene scored the first run in the top of the third. Dannenberg drew a walk, advanced to third on Reynolds’s single to center, and scored on a wild pitch.

Boulder Arrowhead, the Montana representative, made things very difficult for Coeur d’Alene throughout the tournament. They defeated Coeur d’Alene by a 5-2 score on Thursday to earn a berth in Saturday’s final. Coeur d’Alene earned their way to the final by defeating Oregon, 8-3, in Friday’s elimination game.

Jenkins pitched well for Boulder Arrowhead, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out nine. One run scored on a wild pitch, and the other run was unearned.

There was tension in the bottom of the sixth, but A.J. Currie managed to preserve the shutout and the victory. Currie walked pinch-hitter Mason Brosseau to lead off the finning, but then struck out Cooper Freitag.

Brosseau was forced out at second on Josh Sears’s fielder’s choice, but Wilcox reached on an error. Caleb Anderson singled to left, but Sears was held at third. The move by Boulder Arrowhead manager Scott Sears was smart because his son, Josh, had no real chance to score.

Coeur d’Alene shortstop Braeden Newby caught a pop fly hit by Nick Schneider for the third out, starting the celebration on the field that will likely continue on the way back to Idaho.

It is not easy to forecast a regional championship and a trip to Williamsport, but Coeur d’Alene manager Sean Cherry knew for several years that the current team would be special.

“We’ve been working with this core group from the time they were 7 to 9 years old,” said Cherry, who works as a distributor of medical surgical supplies. “They are just ballers — they love the game and they love getting dirty.”

When the season started, Cherry said their goal was to get to San Bernardino for the Northwest Regional. Once there, Cherry realized they had a real chance of a trip to Pennsylvania after they defeated Washington.

“Washington is usually a power, so after beating them we realized this is serious,” Cherry said.

Avrey Cherry said on Friday, he was confident the team would win. He said the idea of going to Williamsport was “amazing.”

Sean Cherry noted the support from the fans, who were probably not quiet for five minutes, and his coaching staff. He smiled when someone mentioned the fans while looking over at them.

Cherry said Manny Azevedo helped coach the team even though Azevedo hasn’t had a child in the program for six years.

“He (Azevedo) is so unselfish and generous with his time,” Cherry said. He added that Steve Saunders has a great baseball background and calls the pitches for the team.

In addition to the talent already in the program, the team got help from center fielder Karl Schwarzer. His mother, Gia Schwarzer, said they moved to the area this year.

“We asked our son about moving in January or staying in California to play the Little League season there,” she said. “He wanted to move in January. It’s the best decision ever.”