BUTTE — Butte High baseball head coach Jim LeProwse had some more melancholic tracks playing over the loudspeaker in the Quonset hut where his team has spent every single practice this season.
The more somber music was fitting, as the Bulldogs have grown dejected by the lack of sunshine and the inability to hold a single practice or game at their home venue, 3 Legends Stadium, which has been battered by a mixture of snow and rain the past weeks.
Over a month into the first sanctioned high school baseball season in Montana, Butte High and Butte Central are still waiting for the weather to stay fair long enough to squeeze in a home game. It still hasn't happened, and the state tournament — which will be held in Butte — is a mere three weeks away.
LeProwse's sentiments on the situation would likely receive a nod of agreement from just about everyone in The Mining City whose patience with this protracted winter is growing thin.
"I'm really sick of snow," LeProwse said. "It's getting frustrating.
"It's definitely frustrating, we're in here a lot," continued LeProwse as he looked around the dimly-lit Quonset hut. "But we're thankful to have this place otherwise I don't know what we'd do."
Over at the Maroon Activities Center on Tuesday, Central head baseball coach Richie O'Brien was having his team play a mock game indoors, even if the confines of a gym can't come close to replicating the feeling of playing outdoors.
"It's been hard on the coaches but it's been especially hard on the kids," O'Brien said. "Really started to see it yesterday, their spirits are down a little bit. That's why we're trying to have a little fun today."
Both Butte and Central — both members of the Eastern division — have played four total games this season, all on the road. Butte (3-1) is in second place behind Belgrade while the Maroons (0-4) are still in the hunt for their first program win.
For both the Bulldogs and Maroons — which are scheduled to play a crosstown doubleheader at home on Tuesday — every game they're able to squeeze in these next weeks will be an opportunity to bolster their record and try to claim one of two state seeds out of the east.
"It's a challenge, there's no doubt about it," said LeProwse. "Two teams get to go to state, and we gotta do whatever we can to put ourselves in position to be there, especially when we're hosting it."
