HELENA — Last August, the Helena Senators American Legion baseball team had the chance to repeat as Montana/Alberta state champions but ultimately fell one game shy, forced instead to watch as Missoula hoisted the championship on Helena’s home field.
This year, the Senators will look to reclaim that state title.
“I think it was a great experience for our whole team,” said pitcher Tyler Beaver of last year’s runner-up finish.“A really great learning experience. We had a lot of positives in that game, lot of good takeaways. Obviously, we lost.
“We didn’t get the outcome we wanted. But, I think that just leads up to this season and trying to execute things that we might not have done so well last year. And how we can accomplish those this year.”
Shortstop Walker DesRosier said he’s taken last year’s state championship loss as a sign to work even harder this year.
“I think what I’ve taken away this year is that you need to work throughout the season to get better, get more,” said DesRosier. “Because even seeing how hard we worked last year, we still fell short. So, it’s important that we keep on the grindstone every day and keep moving.”
But there’s still plenty more work to be done for the Senators to reclaim their spot atop Class AA. Through 26 games this season, the Senators sit at .500.
“Just to continually get better,” head coach Jon Burnett said regarding what he expects from his team.“You know, we started out a little rough. But I think we’re pushing in the right direction. And just improve every day, and we want to be playing our best baseball at the end of July. So, we’re just building toward that goal.”
And in order to achieve that goal, the Senators said they are focusing on three key areas.
“Timely hitting, good pitching, good defense,” said Beaver. “Three keys, win every single game we can, really just keep each other up. No negatives, try to keep everything positive. And if we can do those three things, we’ve got a really good chance to have a great season.”
