Day 1 recaps of Legion baseball state tournament

The Belgrade Bandits defeated the Miles City Mavericks, 6-3, and the Gallatin Valley Outlaws beat the Billings Cardinals, 5-0. The Glacier Twins topped the Lethbridge Miners, 4-2, and the Mission Valley Mariners closed out the day with an 11-1 win over the Vauxhall Spurs.

In the winner’s bracket, Belgrade will play at 2 p.m. Thursday against Glacier, and Mission Valley will battle Gallatin Valley at 5 p.m. In the double-elimination loser’s bracket, Miles City will face Lethbridge at 9 a.m. and Billings will play Vauxhall at 11:30 a.m.

The Mission Valley Mariners, hosts of the tournament, enjoyed their home-field advantage Wednesday evening, cruising to an 11-1 win over the Vauxhall Spurs.

Mariners pitcher Dawson DuMont soared a solo home run into right field in the opening frame, giving Mission Valley a 1-0 lead. The story of the game came in the third inning, though, when the hosts rattled off five runs.

After loading the bases with one out, an RBI groundout, also from DuMont, scored the second run of the game. A double from Wyatt Wadsworth scored another two, and Aiden Gfroerer singled to take a 6-0 lead.

Mission Valley ran away with the game from there. Vauxhall ended DuMont’s shutout bid with a run in the fifth, but the Mariners piled on four more runs in the sixth to bring the scoring to double digits. Mission Valley scored a final run in the seventh.

Lethbridge threatened through the final frame, but the Glacier Twins were able to hold on for a 4-2 win over the Miners to advance in the winner’s bracket.

The Twins struck first in the opening frame after Lethbridge pitcher Carter Bevans loaded the bases with two walks and one hit-by-pitch. An error from the Miners scored two runs for Glacier.

Lethbridge fought back, scoring one in the third and one in the fifth, but a pair of Glacier runs in the fifth and sixth was too much to overcome. The Miners brought the tying run to the plate in the final frame after a leadoff single from Grady Johnson, but Twins pitcher Kellen Kroger forced three game-ending outs.

Kroger finished a complete game with four hits allowed, one earned run and six strikeouts.

The Billings Cardinals scored 26 combined runs in their three most recent games before the Class A American Legion Baseball state tournament. On Wednesday afternoon in Polson, though, Gallatin Valley Outlaws pitcher Brody Ayers put the Cardinals’ offense on ice to secure a 5-0 round-one victory.

Taking a page from Shohei Ohtani, Ayers opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the third inning to give the Outlaws a 2-0 lead. On the mound, the two-way star delivered seven clean innings of work, surrendering just three hits while striking out 11 of the 25 batters he faced. Of his 89 pitches, 68 were strikes.

The score stood until the sixth inning, when back-to-back errors from Billings scored two for Gallatin Valley. Aaron DeFrance singled to bring the Outlaws’ fifth and final run home.

In the opening game of the Class A American Legion Baseball state tournament, the reigning state champion Belgrade Bandits knocked off the Miles City Mavericks, 6-3, on Wednesday in Polson.

Belgrade pitcher Brayton VanDyken kept the Mavericks off the scorecard for six of his seven innings of work. Besides a three-run top of the third — a side that was quickly followed by a three-run frame from the Bandits’ bats — VanDyken kept Miles City from bringing home runners from scoring position. Despite allowing eight hits, his five strikeouts and a strong defense behind him kept the Mavericks from converting hits into runs

Leading 4-3 entering the fifth inning, the Bandits loaded the bases to open the frame. The ensuing batter, Chance Stephens, was plunked by pitcher Jacques Hollowell, scoring one run. A sacrifice fly from Tyler Ritter scored another, giving Belgrade a three-run lead it never surrendered.