Helper American Legion to head to state tournament

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The Helper American Legion Team wrapped up their final two regular season games. Manager Jeff Cisneros said, “We played Uintah a double header at home last night. These two games gave us an opportunity to get some work in and see some live pitching one last time before the state tournament starts on Saturday. It was a good chance to get everyone some time.
“We won the first game 3-2. Mitch Olson started on the mound and really did a nice job. He threw strikes and got his defense involved. I wanted to get all the pitchers about 3 innings of work. Mitch gave up 1 run and the score was 2-1 in our favor when he left. Jarod Lessar came in and did a much better job than his previous outing. Jarod also gave up a run and earned the win on the mound as we scored the go ahead run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Ridge Nielson finished off the pitching as he threw a scoreless seventh.
“Our offense was slow as we scored 2 runs in the 2nd inning. Singles by Lessar, Wilstead and Olson provide the runs in the inning. We scored another run in the fifth inning as Dominic Rondinelli was hit by a pitch and moved around the bases and eventually scored on a passed ball. I was disappointed with our bats as we stranded 10 base runners for the game. In the end we did just enough to escape with a 3-2 win.
The second game saw Kyler Nelson take the mound to start. Kyler pitched well giving up 1 run and 3 hits in 3 innings of work. Cole Fossat came in and struggled to find the strike zone. Cole walked 3 batters and gave up 2 hits as Uintah scored 4 runs in the top of the fourth inning.
“Cole settled down and did not allow another run and Bryce Blackburn came in to pitch a scoreless seventh inning. Our offense was extremely slow again as we did not score through the first 4 innings. We changed our approach in the fifth inning as we sent 15 batters to the plate and scored 9 runs. Singles by Chase Morgan, Kyler Nelson and Dominic Rondinelli got us started.
“A double by Marco Mota and a double and single in the inning by Cole Fossat provided the fire power to score in the inning. We added another run in the sixth inning and then won by a final score of 10-5. Overall I was pleased with our pitching and our defense. Our offense has really got to get going if we are going to make a deep run into the state tournament,” said Cisneros.
Cisneros would like to thank everyone for their support of the Helper American Legion. The fans and the business sponsors help make the program so successful.
Cisneros said, “We will do our best this coming week at the state tournament and you never know, if the ball bounces just the right way we could make another trip to the West Regionals.”