THREE FORKS — The Gallatin Valley Outlaws Legion baseball team is back home in the Treasure State after an exciting, monumental few days in Alaska for the Northwest Class A Regional Tournament, and although their season may have not ended the way they wanted it to, this summer will still go down in the record books.
“It’s still kind of settling in, but it feels amazing to be a part of such a historical moment," senior infielder Isaac Richardson said.
The Outlaws broke a 17-year standing record at the regional tournament this past week, garnering their 59th win of the season for a new program best.
“I didn’t even realize until after the game until everyone was like we just made history with the program, but once I heard those words I was ecstatic," Richardson chuckled.
“I’m just proud of my teammates because it took all of us to get there," senior pitcher Bo Hays added. "It just felt so good to get that record and have our name in the Outlaws history books.”
But as the saying goes, success doesn’t happen overnight.
With a chip on the shoulder from last year’s third-place finish at state, the Outlaws put in the work this offseason to make sure 2021 had a different outcome - this time finishing in the winner’s circle, with a perfect 5-0 record to punch their ticket to Alaska.
“This group really had a chance to be special from the beginning," Outlaws manager Duwayne Scott smiled. "We kind of knew that at the end of last year. They put in a little bit of extra time and prepared for them to have the season that they had. This was a total team effort from one through 18 on the roster."
This past week was only the Outlaws' second appearance at regionals in program history, which was highlighted by an electric comeback win to kick off the tournament.
And while they didn’t walk away with the hardware, one Outlaw player did get quite the honor of receiving the tournament’s top pitcher award - Bo Hays.
“My goal was just to do my best, and there was a lot of other great pitchers in that tournament, so I was just honored that they chose me," Hays said.
At regionals, he retired 16 of the 21 batters he faced, while posting a sparkling 1.11 ERA.
As amazing as that stat is, through the 62 innings he pitched this summer, his cumulative ERA was 1.46.
With one more season of eligibility on the horizon next year’s goal is simple:
“Another state championship I would say," Hays boldly said. "We have a lot of good players that are in the program that are younger, so I would say that we would have a good shot next year because we're only losing a couple of seniors.”
