Helper defense struggles during tournament play

By Sun Advocate

Last Week was a busy one for the Helper American Legion team filled with exciting games.
On Monday they played Olympus away from home and won an important league game 16-5 bolstering their position within the league.
Wednesday they hosted East, winning that game by the score of 14-0, bringing their league record to an impressive 5-1.
They took on Vernal in the Helper tournament on Friday and lost 9-4. Then on Saturday they dropped one to Virgin Valley 9-5. The continued their losing streak in the second game of their double header to the Idaho Regulators by the score of 18-5. Finally wrapping things up with a 13-3 win over Price and a 6-6 tie against Desert Hills.
Against Olympus on Monday, Josh Denison started on the mound and pitched 4 innings.  Derick Anderson came in and finished the game which ended in six innings of because of the mercy rule.
Olympus actually had a lead of 3-2 after three innings. But in the 4th inning Helper roared back with four runs. Singles by Haden Basinger, Ryan Draper and Jd Sherman was followed by a big three run homer by Kyler Edgehouse. Helper picked up a run in the fifth and then put the game away in the sixth inning scoring nine. Tyler Bean, Ryan Anderson and Edgehouse had doubles and Brandon Branch homered in the inning.
On Wednesday against East, Basinger started on the mound with Austin Davis coming in and throwing two innings of shutout ball. This game also only went five innings. It was the in the second when Helper broke the game open with eight runs.
Sherman had a two RBI double. Drape was 2-2 and Jd Sherman was 3-4 in the game
“We faced a very good pitcher from Vernal and we only had five hits,” said Coach Cisneros explaining the loss. “We had the bases loaded twice and failed to get a hit when we needed one. We stranded 12 base runners. We closed the score to 5-4 heading into the 7th inning but we gave up four more runs in the 7th to put the game out of reach. Esquibel threw five good innings but three errors on our part cost us some runs. Our defense really struggled throughout the tournament. This was a game we should of won but we did not get hits when we needed them.”
Edgehouse and Sherman both had doubles and solo homers. Marcus Zaccaria also had a double.
Saturday night Helper started with Virgin Valley Nevada. Gatlon Huntington started and pitched three innings then Denison came in a pitched a pair with Ron Herrera closing.
“Our pitching and our defense both struggled at times during this game. We had too many walks and some untimely errors that led to runs for Virgin Valley,” stated Cisneros.
Virgin Valley got five runs in the bottom of the sixth to take the 9-4 lead. Helper scored a run in the seventh but it was not enough.
“Jd Sherman led us hitting again going 3-4. Jd has been our most consistent hitter all year and is really doing a great job for us right now,” said Cisneros.
In the late game Friday night, Helper lost to the Idaho Regulators for the second time this year. The Regulators were the only team to beat them earlier in the Idaho tournament that Helper won.
Derick Anderson pitched five and Helper jumped out to a 5-3 lead. The wheels started to come off in the fourth inning when Idaho scored five and took a 10-5 lead. Helper then proceeded to let the game get out of hand watching them score eight more in the sixth.
Cisneros talked about that loss, “I was really disappointed in our effort over the last three innings of this game. We did not pitch very well and our defense and offense were nonexistent. Colby Snow and Beau Rich came in a did a pretty good job of pitching, but we had too many errors and not enough heart to win this game. Offensively Ryan Draper was the only player on our team to have more than one hit.”
On Sunday, they played Price. Helper jumped out and scored ten runs in the first inning. Helper got a lot of players some playing time and wrapped it up in five.
The next game on Sunday was against Desert Hills. Helper was also using players to help Vernal who was short players so Cisneros played his younger kids. Helper scored four runs the first and two more in the fifth inning. Desert Hills scored five runs in the sixth to tie the score at 6.
Neither team scored in the seventh and because of a time limit for the tournament games it ended in a tie.
Cisneros summed it up be saying, “I was happy with our effort Sunday and I hope it will carry on for the rest of the year.
They traveled to Cyprus Monday, June 30 and were home Wednesday night against the Taylorsville 17 and under team. Both are league games.