THREE FORKS — Championship Sunday in Three Forks had a very distinct atmosphere as the Belgrade Bandits looked to continue their dominance and take care of the Gallatin Valley Outlaws in the Southern A district title game.
Through the first three innings, pitching from GVO's Caleb Kamerman and Belgrade's Mason Jacobsen was dominant and limited both of the highly-touted offenses.
It was in the top of the fourth a Trevor Doud RBI single brought home the game's first run giving the Outlaws a 1-0 lead.
Fast forward to the bottom of the fifth, and with a runner on third and one out, Belgrade's Seth Green delivered and tied the game at 1-all on a sacrifice fly to center field.
The big play of the game came from the Bandits in the home half of the sixth, when Aidan Kulbeck used a little small ball, a staple of the Belgrade program, to bring home what would be the game-winning run on a squeeze bunt laid perfectly down the first base line.
Jacobsen would take care of business in the top of the seventh, forcing a fly out to end the game and clinch the district title for the Belgrade Bandits.
“We’re just a really excited team, we’re really excited that we came out here and did what we had to do," said Jacobsen.
“If you attack at 100 miles per hour then good things happen, and I think we really started to play well. We told the guys that we’re built to win one-run ball games, and we did so that was great," said Belgrade head coach Johnny Graham.
Both the Bandits and the Outlaws will represent the Southern A in next week's state tournament in Lewistown. Belgrade will be a No.1 seed and Gallatin Valley will be a No. 2 seed.
