MISSOULA — The Class A American Legion Baseball season concludes this week at the state tournament in Polson.
Six teams from Montana and two from Alberta will battle from Wednesday through Sunday to determine a champion.
The Glacier Twins swept the West District tournament last week in Florence, securing the lone open spot for teams in the west — the Mission Valley Mariners were guaranteed a spot by hosting the tournament.
“We really just have to focus on having good at-bats,” Twins manager Kevin Slaybaugh said. “Good at-bats moving the line, and we’ll be fine.”
Glacier Twins’ Trenton DeRosa (12) readies himself before a pitch during the American Legion Western A District championship game between the Glacier Twins and the Kalispell Lakers at Legion Baseball Field in Florence on Sunday, July 28, 2024.
For the Mariners, manager Drew Dumont hopes that the familiarity of playing at home helps his team stay calm in the heightened intensity.
“We just want to come out and show our community what we’re able to do,” Dumont said. “Hopefully staying in our own beds and that home-field advantage will play a part.”
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The Vauxhall Spurs and Lethbridge Miners represent the North district as one- and two-seeds. The Spurs piled on runs at the North District tournament in Lethbridge, totaling 37 runs in their four games. The stretch included back-to-back wins over the Miners to cap the weekend.
Lethbridge, despite a 33-15 record and a .786 win percentage in conference play, has gone 1-5 against Vauxhall this season. The teams stand as the only two representatives of Canada in the tournament.
“We’re just trying to represent what it is to be the Lethbridge Miners, and what it is to represent Canada,” Lethbridge manager Nick Ankerman said.
From the East district, the Billings Cardinals enter as the one-seed and the Miles City Mavericks as the two-seed. The Cardinals rolled into the postseason after a 53-11-1 regular season, winning three straight games in the district tournament by a combined score of 26-3.
“We’ve played the whole season with one goal in mind,” Cardinals manager Tyler Bush said. “It’s been a goal from when we started to participate in this state tournament and have an opportunity to win a state championship.”
The Mavericks finished the regular season just one game above .500 in district play and with an overall losing record of 21-27.
Chaos ensued in the South District tournament when the 15-5 Butte Miners, the district’s top seed, lost two consecutive games to exit the tournament. With Butte eliminated, the reigning-champion Belgrade Bandits and Gallatin Valley Outlaws advanced out of districts and onto state.
“The way we look at it, every year we need to play our best baseball of the year in July,” Gallatin Valley manager Martin Scott said. “That’s what we’ve done.”
The double-elimination tournament starts at 9 a.m. on Wednesday with Belgrade and Miles City facing off at O’Malley Field in Polson. Billings and Gallatin Valley are scheduled to play at 11:30 a.m., Glacier and Lethbridge at 2 p.m., and Vauxhall and Mission Valley at 5:30 p.m. in the first round.
Carson Cashion is a sports writer for 406 MT Sports. Contact him on X @carsoncashion or at carson.cashion@406mtsports.com.
