Baseball: Libby to open Class A tourney against Helena
After storming through the Western A District Tournament with a 4-0 record, the Libby Loggers are looking to keep that momentum going at the Montana-Alberta American Legion Class A State Tournament, which begins today in Helena.
As the top seed from the west, Libby (36-20) will open up the state tournament against the Helena Reps at 7:30 p.m. Helena (42-12-1) finished third in the Southern District behind the Belgrade Bandits and the Gallatin Valley Outlaws, but got into the eight-team field as the host.
“They’ve been solid all year long, so it’s going to be a tough ballgame,” Libby coach Kelly Morford said of Helena.
Libby lost ace pitcher Jared Winslow prior to the district tournament when the right-hander suffered a torn ulner collateral ligament in his elbow. Winslow is still able to play shortstop and bat in the middle of the Loggers’ order, but his dominance on the mound will be missed. He finished the regular season with a 0.36 earned run average and 132 strikeouts in 76 innings.
“It just stops him from pitching, which is obviously a big loss for us,” Morford said of Winslow’s injury.
Will Reichel (3.51 ERA) stepped into the ace role at the district tournament and tossed two quality starts, allowing one earned run through six innings in the first round and two earned runs through seven innings in the championship game. Morford said he’ll give the ball to Luke Haggerty (4.86 ERA) today against Helena to give Reichel an extra day of rest.
“We’ve had some guys that really stepped up after we lost Jared,” Morford said. “Will (Reichel) made two great starts at districts and Micah (Germany) and Luke Haggerty both threw complete games, so that was obviously huge. We’re not going to blow anybody away with our pitching, but they get the job done.”
Libby’s strength is its offense, as five regulars are batting over .300 for the season, including Germany, who leads the team with a .395 average and Winslow, who is batting .393. Oliver Grupenhoff has a team-leading six home runs and 18 doubles.
Defending state champion Mission Valley failed to qualify for this year’s tournament after finishing third in the Western A District, but Morford said the tournament is loaded with quality teams. He considers Eastern A runner-up Glasgow and Southern A champion Belgrade the favorites, but he wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the other six teams end up with the title.
“It’s probably one of the more level playing fields we’ve seen at the state tournament,” Morford said.
“We need timely hitting and we just can’t give a whole lot of runs away on defense. If we can make the routine plays and get the timely hits to drive in runs, we’ll be able to compete.”
Class A State Tournament
Thursday
9 a.m. — Laurel Dodgers vs. Vauxhall (Alberta) Spurs
12:30 p.m. — Glasgow Reds vs. Lethbridge (Alberta) Miners
4 p.m. — Belgrade Bandits vs. Missoula Mavericks
7:30 p.m. — Libby Loggers vs. Helena Reps