GREAT FALLS — 16-1.
That's the current record of the Great Falls Chargers Class AA American Legion baseball team following a three-game sweep of the Kalispell Lakers across Thursday and Friday.
"We're always going to be competitive," Great Falls CMR's Carson Hollern said after Wednesday's practice at Don Olson Field. "We got the pitching, we got the hitting and we got a good group of guys. We're always just 100% together all the time."
"I wouldn't really look at the record too hard," Belt's Dawson Cook said. "More to point out how, like, we're playing good baseball this year. We're just a group that's going to get it done no matter what happens."
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Hollern recently played in the high school state AA tournament with CMR, which he said was a good segue in to legion ball.
"Having a high-stake state tournament, taking third really helped a lot of guys," Hollern said. "Some of us haven't seen that type of competition."
Cook, on the other hand, didn't get a chance to play baseball in the spring and instead ran track for Belt. Although, he said he was ready to go.
"With track, it was always tough (to work on baseball), but I mean I fit right in," Cook said. "I started the first conference game, so it just felt really good to be back and got the win in the first game. So it was great."
Camaraderie is high with this group, both said, since they've all been playing legion together for a while.
"Long, long time with a lot of these guys," Hollern said. "There's some new guys too. But like, we're just clicking right now. Everybody's swinging it well and it's not just one guy, it's everybody coming together and slugging the baseball."
"We all have team dinners. Outside of baseball we're all buddies," Cook said. "Really great morale within this group, and we're all seniors, so it's kind of our last ride together."
Great Falls made the legion AA state tournament last year, but Hollern and Cook say the team has eyes on much more than just going back this time around.
"My freshman year we did not make the state tournament," Hollern said. "Last year it was good to kind of get there, experience it. And now we want to take control and really win games there."
"Didn't get the outcome we wanted, but use it as a building block," Cook said. "We're not close to the end of the year. We still improve every day or try to improve every day. So if we just come out here, get 1% better every day, I feel like we can still get so much better before the state tournament."
The Chargers take their 16-1 record in to a series with Lethbridge, Alberta, on the road Tuesday and Wednesday.
