The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT August 1, 2012

I’ve covered plenty of baseball over the last 10 years as a sports reporter.

But nothing can compare to the final three days of American Legion baseball at McEuen Field over the past weekend.

AS HAS been the expectation all this season, when the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen hosted the class AA Area A tournament — at some point, the final out in the 45-year home of the program was going to be recorded.

The program is scheduled to move uptown to a location on Ramsey Road by the start of next season.

When the first game of the four-team tournament between the Prairie Cardinals and Lewis-Clark Twins started, things didn’t look so hot for the Cardinal team.

Little by little, Prairie started to battle back.

Eventually, Prairie tied the game on a double by Zack Reeder with two outs in the ninth.

Darnell Metcalf ended it with a swing of the bat in the bottom of the 11th and the Cardinals essentially clinched a berth to state for the second straight year.

Coeur d’Alene beat Trail, then Prairie in Saturday’s semifinal to advance to state.

And after Lewis-Clark eliminated Trail early Saturday morning — mixed with the Twins hosting the state tournament at Harris Field in Lewiston starting Thursday, the only thing left to determine was who was playing when.

ONCE PRAIRIE beat Lewis-Clark, the stage was set for the championship game.

And it was a good championship game.

Coeur d’Alene scored early, but Prairie kept the game close — even having their chances to break through and force a second championship game.

But late runs and a strikeout by Lumbermen pitcher Colin Comack lifted Coeur d’Alene to a second straight area (district) championship.

Once that final out was recorded, there was a bit of a celebration for the win, and another for the program’s final game near the lake.

Judging by Sunday’s crowd, there was more than just an interest in who was going to win the seventh game between the Cardinals and Lumbermen thus far this season.

With the way that both Prairie and Coeur d’Alene played in the tournament, should they continue to hit and score runs, they could face each other again — this time for a state championship.

THERE ARE a lot of memories associated with McEuen, and for a lot of people, coming to the final weekend of baseball at the field was their way of saying good bye.

And I don’t think you can ask for a better way to close it out.

Competitive games and big crowds are about all you can ask for.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com.