Victory, rain, turnaround, defeat.
That all happened over not even a day-and-a-half to the Helper Marchants AA American Legion baseball team, a summer squad of high school players, at the Utah State Legion Championship.
Helper won its first-round matchup Wednesday in a 4-0 victory over Lone Peak, but was eliminated Thursday evening in an 8-4 decision. In the mere two hours before the latter game started, Helper needed to make a 32-mile drive lasting 39 minutes at least after losing to North Cache 9-7 in the double-elimination tournament. Helper’s second loss was in Pleasant Grove starting at 5 p.m.
But its first two contests were in Kearns, the second ending about 3 p.m. Thursday. And even those times were unconventional, with every playoff matchup between the eight teams having been rain-delayed through Helper’s run (one was canceled).
But Coach Jeff Cisneros was not going to justify at least one reason for defeat.
“We could make every excuse we want,” he said, “but I’m not a coach that makes excuses for poor play.”
He said that the 9-7 North Cache outcome “should have been like a 9-2 ballgame” in Helper’s favor. His team committed five errors in the first two-and-a-half innings, with more than one run being give up due to baserunning miscues.
“You can’t have those sort of errors in a state tournament,” Cisneros said.
Helper American Legion team advances in state tourney, but after rain, is eliminated in quick turnaround
Victory, rain, turnaround, defeat. That all happened over not even a day-and-a-half to the Helper Merchants AA American Legion baseball team, a summer squad of high school players, at the Utah State Legion Championship. Sierra Trujillo