GREAT FALLS — The Great Falls Voyagers got off to a rocky start in their first season as an independent club, but the team returned to Centene Stadium on Wednesday with newfound confidence after picking up a few wins on a long road trip.
Great Falls started the season 0-9 with some ugly losses. The bats were working, but struggles with pitching and defense gave the Voyagers a lot of grief early. But ahead of the club's six-game home-stand, the Voyagers had gone on a 7-5 stretch to improve to 7-14 overall. Infielder Troy Dixon said the team has been sharper of late.
"Just been playing a little bit better baseball," he said. "Cleaning up on some of the mistakes that we've been making, continue to have good at-bats, pitchers doing well on the mound and playing good defense behind them. And just overall, we find ourselves in a lot more closer ballgames than when we started out."
"It's an ebb and flow. You just kind of got to ride the wave. And I think we did a really good job of not getting too down on ourselves," shortstop Quintin Alexander said. "Morale stayed high in the clubhouse."
Speaking of the clubhouse, the team has already made numerous roster moves to get better, and fresh faces coming in have provided a spark.
"We have good dugout energy, good locker room energy," Dixon said. "To be able to keep that, Tommy Thompson, the manager, does a great job of keeping us all together and tied in and so that'll be really key in being able to win some ballgames."
And the team wants to keep in mind, this is a longer season than the old Pioneer League season, and a lot can happen.
"Baseball is a funny game, it kind of changes in the blink of an eye. A guy or team can be struggling and just one moment it kind of clicks and you start hitting that accelerator," Alexander said. "And that's what we're hoping to do."
