5 Wins In A Row; 3 Home Runs In A Row

15 hits and 10 Mustang runs were enough to beat the Great Falls Voyagers last night, 10-6. Pitchers and hitters, fielders and umpires, all did fairly well. The hitting thing that stood out was the 6 run explosion in the Mustang 4th. Buckley hit another long home run over the left field fence with two on (13), followed by Maddox hitting one over the right field fence (10), and then Waldrop followed with another over the right field fence (3).

A hat-trick? No, that is the term used when a player scores 3 goals in hockey. How about home run trio? Hmm, have to think on that for awhile. In any event, unusual and exciting and probably depressing for the Great Falls pitchers.

Speaking of pitchers, our bullpen looked good. Starting pitcher Guillon did fairly well for 4 innings, though he was wild as usual. Contreras was hurt as he took a line drive off one of his shins and was unable to continue in the 5th inning. Dan Jensen came on and according to the box score got the win but I'm not sure how that came about as I thought the pitcher of record in the inning in which the winning runs scored was the winner. Wait a minute, maybe the 6th run in the 9th inning negated the starter's efforts? Yes, that is the probable explanation. I'm not quite trustful of the scorer as he tends to score hits more easily than a lot of us would. Maybe our expectations are too high.

The Mustangs are now tied with the Voyagers and the Osprey for first place in the Northern Division, with 7 wins and 5 losses each, though since Missoula won the first half the Voyagers are the critical opponents to stay ahead of to make the playoffs. In the Southern Division the Casper Ghosts and the Ogden Raptors seem to have changed uniforms in the 2nd half of the season. Probably has something to do with promotions and demotions of players.

We are all worried that Sean Buckley is looking too good in the batting department. He might just be needed higher up in the organization.

Waipahu Marauders Win Regional Legion Baseball Championship

The Scarlets or Royals have not been this close to a National Legion Tournament since the days of Dave McNally around forty years ago. There was only one team standing in the way of a trip to Shelby NC and that was Waipahu, Hawaii and their tournament MVP Kawika Pruett, good hitting first baseman and their #1 pitcher. He shut out the Scarlets today, 7-0, scattering 4 hits, and helped his cause by belting a grand-slam home run off Joe Barta. At the ceremony they said he allowed only 6 hits in 14 innings, which qualifies for a dominant pitcher in my book.

I asked yesterday if the Scarlets had some pitchers to take on these guys from Hawaii. They did, at least for one game, but they had no hitters to speak of except Ty Gilmore. Six or 7 runs is a reasonable pitcher's good job in Legion baseball. The batters are expected to get that many and a few more. They reverted to the high fly ball to centerfield boredom which nearly lost the opening game, and nearly lost the game with the Royals, except for a couple of high flies that were long enough to be home runs by Tolstedt and Gilmore.


The regional tournament will be in Billings next year as well. It will be interesting to see if the Scarlets can scare up enough reasonable competition in the regular season to hone their skills: in batting against good pitchers; and in bunting and base-running when needed, i.e. close low-run games. According to the souvenir scorebook they will have 11 players graduating, though how many of those are still eligible is not clear from the data in the book.

Talking about next year reminds me that it seemed like the Scarlets were a little short-handed at the end of the season, and probably other teams as well. I thought the usual number was 18. I understand the need for taking advantage of any football scholarships on offer but I would think that some judicious compromise at the coach level could work these problems out before they become critical. I can't believe that a few days missing calisthenics in early August is going to make that much of a difference, even if you are going to Georgia Tech or Nebraska.

If worse comes to worst you could always be red-shirted and get some of your basic studies in before you start knocking heads against better players than you've seen before. It seems to me that if worser comes to the worst you could choose your players at the beginning of the season depending on who is available at the end of the season. Just some bargaining chips in case they are necessary.

The young men from Hawaii should be fun to watch at the Legion World Series in North Carolina. I wouldn't be surprised if they go all the way.

[Update:]  17 Aug 2011: I didn't see anything in the Gazette on the Legion World Series held in Shelby NC the following week. The news gathered from the Gaston Gazette had Brooklawn NJ beating Waipahu, Hawaii 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth in the opening round. Most of the game was pitched by Chevas Numata, the big guy who won the first game against the Scarlets here in the Regional. Other opening day games included Eden Prairie, the eventual winner of the World Series, losing big to Midland MI; Tupelo MS topping Las Vegas NV 6-3; and Gaffney SC beating Bedford NH 12-1. Waipahu lost badly the following day with Sumi Pruett, the big guy who handled the Scarlets with ease in the final of the Regional here in Billings doing the pitching, and thus went home quickly, sadder but wiser I'm sure. Through the usual twists and turns of a double elimination tournament Eden Prairie and Tupelo, each with a loss,  faced off in the championship game and Eden Prairie won 5-4. Wait 'til next year when we hope the Scarlets and Royals will be hosting at the State tournament and representing the Montana state champs, just like this year.

Excitement at Dehler: Only Waipahu and Billings Scarlets Still Standing

This has been an interesting Regional American Legion Baseball Tournament. As far as I can remember we have only had three regional tournaments since 1980, one in the early 80s when Jeff Ballard—before he went on to star at Stanford and pitch for the Baltimore Orioles—got beat in extra innings by a Washington bloop hit over the 2nd baseman's—or maybe the shortstop's head—and the Scarlets were so depressed they got beat by Helena the next morning, leaving way too quickly; and another sometime in the 90s about which I have no memory, and then this one.

This tournament, directed by Joe Studiner, was unusual in that both AA teams here in Billings were playing, the Scarlets as the state champion and the Royals coming in 2nd at the state tournament became the host team. The Royals drew Salem Oregon in the first round and lost but won their 2nd game. I forget who they sent home, either Alaska or Wyoming, both often going two and out.

The seeding was very favorable for the Scarlets, drawing Boise Idaho the first round, which they won 3-1, with Joe Barta pitching a 5 hit game and Max Tolstedt hitting a 3 run homer to win it.

See the picture above and left as his teammates welcome him home.

Then they faced Waipahu, Hawaii: the Scarlet pitching was unfortunately not up to par, their fielding wasn't so good, and their running game was even worse. They lost 11-10 when the pitcher Girard, after a gutsy performance for most of the game, threw a sacrifice bunt over the first baseman's glove.

That put the Scarlets and the Royals to face each other the next day in a loser-out contest. Appar-ently this was the first time this has happened in Billings or in a Regional tournament.

Brady Muller of the Scarlets looked good on the mound and Ty Gilmore won it in the bottom of the 9th with his first home run of the season. One wonders if Muller should have been pitching against Hawaii. Yes, I know, this is Monday morning quarterbacking. It was difficult to see any really dominant pitchers in this tournament, thus allowing the coaches to play hunches and try to save their better pitchers for the bigger games to come. So anyway, the Scarlets sent the Royals packing which was probably a just result, reflecting the big difference between the teams this past year.

I almost forgot the big storm that cancelled a couple of games and interrupted the Royals ousting some team in the early loser-out part of the tourney. So everything was a little strange as the games were delayed, and the scoreboard didn't work very well, omitting the balls and strikes. I forgot how much we depend on knowing the count on nearly every pitch. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised at unusual things happening at Dehler, with all the unusual weather we have been having this spring and summer.




There were good crowds at all the games the Scarlets and Royals played, especially the one where they played each other, maybe as many as 2000-2500. I saw a lot of alumni in the crowds too. See above right.

Salem Oregon—more accurately the Withnell Dodgers—surprised Bellingham Washington on the 2nd day but then they lost to Waipahu early today, 8-2, and then got walloped by our Scarlets 25-5, yes, twenty-five! I said. They called it, mercifully, at the end of 7 innings as Salem simply had no pitchers left. All the balls that were high flies in the earlier games for the Scarlets were now line drives to the deepest parts of Dehler Park. Ty Gilmore hit his 2nd home run in as many days and Brady Muller also hit a home run. Miles Berkram almost cranked one out as he tripled in two runs.

Some of the fans from Oregon were a little miffed because they thought the Scarlets were purposely embarrassing them. There is a 10 run rule but it doesn't come into effect until after 7 innings. You can't run out the clock like they do in high school football or simply toss it around like they do in basketball.

The late game today was won by Hawaii, 6-5, a come-from-behind victory in the 9th inning. They remain undefeated for the Scarlets to take them on again on Monday. Bellingham Washington was feeling fairly confident going into the 9th inning, leading 5-3. Their pitcher, Hayden Knight, had done a very creditable job the whole night, holding the Hawaiians down to three runs. When he walked the first batter of the inning his coach decided to promptly replace him with another who walked several more. A few errors and a fielder's choice, and a third pitcher came in with the game tied now: with one out a long fly to center scored the winning run. I don't think they got a hit at all in the ninth inning. Bellingham fans had some discouraging words to say as we all left pondering the matchup the next day, and Hawaii celebrated in their own fashion. This was an exciting game and so is the tournament thus far. The Hawaiians remain surprisingly calm and relaxed. Last year they came in 2nd at Las Vegas, who knows, this year they may go all the way with their rhythmic cheerleading letting off the pressure.

Can the Scarlets come up with the pitchers to win two game on Monday? Watch this space.

This tournament thus far has featured some outstanding umpires. The three man crew is a very good idea. Perhaps we should adopt it for the regular season games. I am guessing they don't teach the boys to hit down on the ball these days as there seem to be an unusual number of high fly balls to the outfield. They do allow the fielders to catch up with them, sometimes in spectacular fashion.

Another good idea was the placing of the state flags on their respective dugouts. It sent all of us to Wikipedia to look them up, especially the Hawaiian state flag with its small Union Jack. We all learned a little history.

Tolstedt Powers Scarlets To Win 3-1

Something unusual for American Legion baseball, at least this year: the pitchers for both sides were dominant in the 4 pm game on Opening Day of the Northwest Regional Legion Tournament here at Dehler Park. Billings' Scarlets played the Boise Gems. Joe Barta started and finished for the Scarlets, getting stronger as he went deeper into the game. He was tagged for a home run but that was all as he gave up only 5 scattered hits.

The big blow for Billings came in the 6th inning when after a couple of hits, Max Tolstedt whacked a hanging curve over the left field fence. That brought the score to 3-1 and there it remained. I wonder if the other teams in the tournament noted the problems the Scarlets had in hitting a pitcher throwing relatively slowly?