Plains baseball team ready for inaugural season

The head coach for the first Plains High School Horseman baseball team is enthusiastic about the upcoming season as his boys spend more time practicing outside.

The Plains Horsemen started practice two weeks ago but couldn't get any outdoor practice until last week when the field at Amundson Sports Complex was somewhat usable. Members of the team helped get the field prepared while John Thurston, who has a son on the team, gave the field its first mowing of the year. Powers hopes the weather holds for practice, especially with the first game of the season only a week away.

"I'm excited about the first game, but I don't want to put the kids in a position to fail, even though baseball is mostly a game of failure," said head coach Rick Powers. "Just think about it. Somebody's throwing a little round ball and you have to hit it with a round bat. That's hard," said Powers.

Powers not only had to get the team members in shape, but started training with the very basics, even how to throw a ball farther. Most probably hadn't hit a ball from a t-ball stand since they were little tykes, but Powers felt by setting the ball on the stand between the knees and upper thigh teaches them to swing at a ball in that spot. They also took swings from a borrowed pitching machine and a live pitcher on the mound.

Montana High School Association voted last year to make baseball a sanctioned high school sport. Twenty-one teams represent 26 schools across Montana, according to Scott Wilson, the associate director with the Montana High School Association. The only high school baseball team in Sanders County is the Plains team, which co-ops with Hot Springs. The Horsemen are one of four teams in the West Division, which includes Polson, St. Ignatius and Frenchtown, though the Horsemen will go against teams from other divisions, said Wilson.

The Horsemen have 14 players on the team, including senior Garth Parker and junior Jody Page from Hot Springs. Baseball is one of the school sports that allows eighth-graders on the team and the Horsemen have two - Matt Thurston and Jack Cockrell. Only Matthew Wyatt, 16, has never played organized youth baseball. Matthew Reinhardt, 16, played one year, but he said it's been awhile. All the remaining teammates have played some type of organized youth baseball, including a couple that played Legion ball in Plains last year. Powers has coached nine of players before.

Parker, the sole senior on the team, is considering playing Legion ball this year, though the Plains team, the Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs, might not play this year due to a lack of coaches. The Plains High School team also has six juniors, three sophomores and one freshman with an age range of 13-17 years old, said Powers, who is no stranger to coaching baseball. The 61-year-old Powers has 26 years of coaching under his belt, including teams in Plains and Parkton, Maryland, where he grew up. He played and coached at Hereford High School in Maryland. He also played at Essex Community College near Baltimore. He moved to Plains in 2018 after 33 years with the Maryland Department of Education. In Plains, he helped coach Babe Ruth baseball for the last two years and was one of the assistant coaches for the Plains Horsemen football team last year. He said it was nice that the MHSA added baseball as another high school spring sport. "I think it's great they added baseball. We have a good baseball culture here," said Powers.

The team began practice two weeks ago and started outside practice behind the school a couple days later before moving to Amundson Sports Complex, where all their games will be held. They train Monday through Friday two or three hours each day. Powers is being assisted by 27-year-old Brady Ovitt, a 2014 Plains High School graduate and presently a Hot Springs School teacher. Ovitt played youth baseball from t-ball to Senior Babe Ruth and has five years of coaching experience, including baseball while he was a teacher in Alaska. He also coached girls softball, football and basketball in Colstrip, Mt. John Thurston, head coach for the Babe Ruth team the last two years, is also periodically a volunteer coach.

Powers and Ovitt are working on the basics and determining the players' strengths - throwing, hitting, running, along with the proper swinging of the bat and good fielding abilities. Powers is presently looking at Joseph Pullen and Parker as the team's possible pitchers. He said the team is "a work in progress" but he has seen improvement.

Powers said students can still sign up, though they have to get 10 days of practice in before they play in a game. "This year is a learning experience for everybody, but I think you're going to see it grow," said Powers. "It's a crap shoot at this point," said Ovitt. "Any time you add a new sport, there are going to be hiccups," he added.

The Horsemen host Frenchtown on Thursday, March 30, at 4 p.m. They travel to Eureka on April 1 and Mission on April 6.