Miners win Helena tournament

By Lethbridge Herald on June 27, 2023.

SUBMITTED PHOTO The Lethbridge Miners took home the plaque as champions of the Helena Reps Cloninger Classic over the weekend.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Miners American Legion ‘A’  baseball team won the Helena Reps Cloninger Classic over the weekend in  Montana.

The Miners went undefeated in four tournament games after opening with a 10-0 shutout win over the Gillette Rustlers, followed by  a 14-6 win over the Kalispel Lakers, and  a 9-8 win over JNS Baseball, before closing out with a 10-4 win over the host Reps in the final.

“Yeah, we were very happy with the weekend,” said Miners coach Nicholas Ankermann.

“It kind of went exactly as planned. We worked on a few things during the week and we saw those transition into our gameplay. Our pitchers were confident, threw really well,  our hitters were aggressive and we put  a lot of good swings on baseballs and tallied up a lot of hits over the weekend . .. Our defense was solid and was able to back up our pitchers and make big plays when needed.”

That was the Miners second tournament win of the season after winning their home tournament back in May.

The Miners will host the Lewiston Redbirds at Spitz Stadium tonight for a double header beginning at 6 p.m.

Meanwhile the Elks AA team took two out of three game from Medicine Hat Monarchs over the weekend.

It was on Monday night that the Elks edged the Monarchs 5-4 at Spitz Stadium to wrap up the three-game set.

Ben Puzskar hit a triple in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs to score the winning run.

Pitcher Garret Smith threw five innings, while striking out eight batters and gave up two hits.

Dave Stewart came in relief of Smith and pitched two scoreless innings to get the win.

Brennan McTavish went 3-for-3 at the dish and Stewart added two hits.

The Elks were in Medicine Hat for a double header on Saturday.

Lethbridge dropped the opening game 12-4.

Both teams were tied at four heading into the bottom of the sixth inning before the Elks gave up eight runs.

River Hope went 3-for-3 at the plate and Lyle Steadman had two hits in the loss.

Game two saw the Elks get a much needed 6-3 win.

Karsen Haney led the way with a three-run home run and McTavish tacked on two hits in the victory.

The winning pitcher was Cooper Oriold-Climenhaga pitched a complete game seven innings and  only allowing four hits and striking out five batters.

The Elks will next  be action on Thursday in the Helena tournament.

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