BILLINGS — The task of winning two games on a Sunday to keep their season alive wasn’t anything that the Billings Scarlets hadn’t seen before.
But this time around, it was in American Legion World Series play, where there’s even-smaller margins for error.
The Northwest Region champion Scarlets were defeated 1-0 by Bossier City (Louisiana) and 4-3 by Midland (Michigan) on Sunday at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, North Carolina, dropping them to 0-3 in pool play and eliminating them from qualification to Monday’s semifinal round to end a historic trip to the ALWS.
The Scarlets’ season ends with a record of 63-16 overall and a distinction no one will ever be able to take away from them of being the first Montana team since 1962 to qualify for the ALWS, which they accomplished by defeating Eugene (Oregon) twice Aug. 11 in the regional championship games at home at Dehler Park.
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Kyler Northrop of the Billings Scarlets bats during their game against Midland (Mich.) at the American Legion World Series at Veterans Field at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, N.C., on Sunday.
“Man, it’s been an amazing ride,” Scarlets coach Adam Hust said in a phone call to The Billings Gazette and 406 MT Sports after the game. “I’m going to miss a lot of these young men that are moving on, and I know we’ll see them in the community at some point, but I love the group and I love what they’ve done.
“I couldn’t be more happy. … I couldn’t be more privileged to do what I do with this group of young men.”
Having lost its ALWS opener Thursday to Wilmington (Delaware), the Scarlets had to defeat Louisiana in their second game to keep their hopes of making the final four going. Michigan was 2-0 in pool play entering Sunday while Delaware was 1-1 and Louisiana 0-1, with a head-to-head tiebreaker meaning that Billings couldn’t afford a second loss.
Complicating those efforts was the fact that there was a long pause in the middle of the Montana-Louisiana game.
Billings played in Sunday’s first two games of the day at the ALWS, with its matchup against Louisiana being the resumption of Saturday night’s clash that was postponed midgame due to inclement weather.
A pitching duel all the way through, the score was tied at 0-0 when the game restarted with one out in the top of the third inning and stayed that way until the bottom of the fifth, when Bossier City’s Hudson Brignac drove in Jackson Jones with a base hit.
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