Billings Scarlets win regional title, end Montana's 62-year Legion World Series drought (2024)

BILLINGS — Doused in the remnants of what was inside the water cooler after it was dumped on him, Adam Hust only had one thing to say.

“I haven’t had a shower like that since 2016,” the Billings Scarlets coach said.

That summer was the year that the Scarlets American Legion baseball team last won the Montana/Alberta Class AA state championship, a major achievement in its own right.

But Sunday’s Northwest Region 7 Tournament victory, which was why the Scarlets were giving their coach a cooler shower in the first place— that tops everything that Hust, and the Scarlets in their history, have ever won.

Capping off a historic run of five straight wins in four days against state champion-level opposition, the Scarlets defeated the Eugene (Oregon) Challengers twice at Dehler Park to win their first regional championship in team history — and become the first Montana team to qualify for the American Legion World Series since 1962.

The Scarlets (63-13 overall), who lost in their tournament’s opener Wednesday to Fort Collins (Colorado), had to claw back to the final day with no room for error in the double-elimination bracket. They delivered Sunday, winning 5-4 in nine innings in a tense first game before firing on all cylinders with a 7-0 victory in Game 2.

Scarlets infielder Nate McDonald, a Billings West grad and a current baseball player at Montana State Billings, was named the tournament's MVP after raking for a .409 average (9 for 22) with two home runs, two triples, one double, five RBIs and 10 runs. With his play mixed in with great pitching and a stellar defense that did not commit an error all week, Billings after Wednesday’s setback turned into a buzzsaw.

And now, that buzzsaw will be one of just eight American Legion baseball teams left standing nationally and the Northwest’s representative on the level’s biggest stage.

“It’s just beyond words for me right now,” Hust said. “There’s been so many players in this program that have been here for so long, and guys that sweat and bleed and work out here to make this program what it is. To get to be a part of it (with) these guys, this is one of the greatest feelings ever.

“I am so happy these boys get to experience this. I can’t even believe where they’re at and how great it is for them.”

Though the Scarlets failed to win the state championship (won by the Missoula Mavericks, who went two-and-out in Billings this week) earlier this month after going 2-2 in Helena, the Scarlets got a lifeline by qualifying for the Region tournament as hosts.

Then the offense arrived while the pitchers continued to deal.

All of that good mojo, plus the fact that they would be playing the games in front of a pro-Scarlets crowd at home, helped calm the red side’s nerves heading into Sunday’s daunting challenge against Eugene, the tourney’s only unbeaten squad.

“We knew they were a good team,” McDonald said of the clubhouse’s vibe going into the championship games. “They have some good arms, and we’ve got the same … we just knew it’d be a hard-fought battle, and so we just went out there and just kind of did what we do all year, combine everything.”

If there were any lasting nerves from the Scarlets going into Game 1, they were quickly erased.

Cody Collis drove home Nolan Berkram in the top of the first inning. Mason Brosseau and Kade Vatnsdal did the same to Brady Randall and Jaron Pinter in the fourth to give the Scarlets a 3-0 lead early.

Traded runs from Oregon and the Scarlets in the bottom of the fourth and top of the fifth — with McDonald smashing a leadoff triple and getting home via an error — made it 4-1. But Eugene then erupted for a three-run sixth to tie it at 4-4 and put the pressure on the Scarlets.

Jakob Wilcox ensured that wouldn’t happen. With neither team breaking as the game went to extras, his base hit in the ninth scored Colter Wilson. Wilcox proceeded to complete his two-inning mound shift by getting three outs to force a winner-take-all showdown.

“It was going to be up to whatever team that was going to bounce back from the long game,” Hust said. “Basically, whoever was going to make plays. And my team made plays all week.”

His team also made plenty of plays in Game 2 — so many that it wasn’t close to sweating out extras the second time around.

Wilcox, who only threw 26 pitches in Game 1, got the start in Game 2 and made it 5⅔ innings on 79 more pitches, allowing three hits and striking out four, to stay within Legion baseball’s 105-pitch daily limit.

Meanwhile, Brosseau brought home Collis in the second to get the scoring started, and things only got better for the Scarlets. Two runs apiece in the third, sixth and seventh innings made the title more of a formality, and once reliever Vatnsdal got the final out the Scarlets’ caps and gloves were flying across the infield.

“Sixty-something years, that’s crazy to think about,” shortstop Kyler Northrop, who went 2 for 4 with a RBI and a run in the clinching game, said. “I think I’m still trying to just process what happened over the course of this week. If you would have told me this would happen on Wednesday after we lost that first one, I probably wouldn’t believe you.”

Now, with the Scarlets in uncharted territory, their history-making romp through the postseason can become even more legendary.

The Scarlets will be the Northwest’s representative at the Legion World Series Thursday through Tuesday in Shelby, North Carolina.

They’re in the “Stripes” pool with Wilmington, Delaware, Bossier City, Louisiana and Midland, Michigan. They will play all three teams starting with Delaware at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, streamed live on ESPN3. A top-two finish in their pool would advance the Scarlets to the semifinal round Monday, Aug. 19.

Guaranteed at least three games in North Carolina, the Scarlets will represent Montana in something that’s been a long time coming.

“There've been a lot of teams come through here and been really close that I’ve been a part of,” Hust said. “The Billings Scarlets and the people that follow and the kids that are a part of it and the families that are a part of it, they’re all going to get a chance to experience something amazing.”