| Out at first. Tony McFarland sends a Kearns runner to the dugout during the American Legion tournament last weekend in Helper. |
After finishing a disappointing tournament last weekend, the Helper American Legion baseball team bounced back to capture a victory last Tuesday night.
Prior to the home win, the Helper squad traveled north to compete against Cyprus. The game picked up where the team left off at the tourney; on a rocky road.
During this game, Helper struggled to hit the ball. In fact, the team had only two hits in the ball game and committed three errors. The squad also failed to complete a single run against Cyprus.
Entering the fourth inning, both teams remained deadlocked. This is when Cyprus launched their rally and completed two runs. From here on out, the ball game belonged to Cyprus.
Helper suffered a 9-0 loss against the legion team and according to coach Jeff Cisneros, the biggest problem that plagued the squad was mistakes.
“We continued to commit minor mistakes and errors which just hurt us. This combined with the fact that we just didn’t hit the ball well resulting in the loss,” explained Cisneros.
The Helper team returned home Tuesday evening to host Olympus. It seemed as if everything Helper had tried was not working, so the coaches decided to play many of the younger players.
The move paid off as the American Legion team captured the 11-7 victory.
“A lot of the young kids came out and played well for us. Things just clicked and we were able to finally capture a win,” Cisneros explained.
During the competition, Helper improved dramatically by finishing with 10 hits.
“Tyler Nelson did a fabulous job for us at bat. He hasn’t seen much action this year because he’s been gone quite a bit, but he really stepped up and got the job done for us. In fact, he was 3-3 at bat against Olympus,” Cisneros stated.
The Helper coach also explained that Jamal Lewis pitched the game and did a good job for the ball club.
Helper was scheduled to host Granger Wednesday evening and will continue season competition Friday night as they host a double header against a Montana ball club. Action will kick off at 6 p.m. and Saturday, the team will play at 1 p.m.