HELENA — The sun wasn’t the only one to make an appearance in the Capital City on Thursday as home-openers for both Helena Capital as well as Helena High School commenced on Thursday afternoon.
The Great Falls High Bison were first up on the diamond as they prepared to do battle with the Bruins at home.
Bison starting pitcher, senior Tehneson Ehnes, played well, with multiple strikeouts. But Capital’s Nyeala Herndon would not be out-dueled as she struck out two more batters in the second inning to help lead her squad in a shutout over the Bison from Great Falls through three innings. Junior Belle Glowacki also made a nifty backhand play at second base to get her team's bats going again.
After six innings, Herndon — who committed to play for the UM Grizzlies last year — was already 3 for 3 with four RBI’s and a home run. On the mound, she struck out 11 Bison batters before the final inning had even started.
The Bison were able to get one on the board but ultimately fell to the Herndon-led Capital Bruins 5-1. The Bruins would improve to 4-0 to begin the season after they walked it off (8-7) against CMR in 7 innings in both of these school’s second game of the evening.
Over at Frank D. Mihelish Fields was where the CMR Rustlers looked to take on the Helena Bengals in game one.
Already leading 4-0 early in the fifth inning, the Helena Bengals continued to control the game, eventually going up 7-0 before the inning ended after senior Kalley May helped to clear the bases on a hard hit double.
Helena’s sophomore pitcher Faith Howard also had a few strikeouts in game one to help lift her team over the CMR Rustlers, 8-1. CMR was only able to muster up one run late in the first game of their series versus Helena, as CMR senior Sarah Faulk scored for the Rustlers.
Helena High went on to defeat the Bison from Great Falls 6-3 in game two.
