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The Helper Merchants wrapped up a busy week with a third-place finish after going 3-1 in the Helper American Legion Tournament Saturday evening at Ernie Gardner Field.

“One bad game and three good games,” said manager Dakota Cisneros. “I think we did many things right this weekend and we took steps forward. I’ve been preaching to them to focus on improving each day and we did that.”

Playing four-games in four-days, Helper started out with a perfect 2-0 record. After securing wins over Union and Tooele, the Merchants suffered their first loss of the tournament Friday night in a 9-6 loss to Skyline.

In the lone loss of the weekend the Merchants committed several costly throwing errors in the field. Offensively the team logged four strikeouts with bases loaded, squandering the opportunity to advance to the title game.

Returning to the field Saturday, Helper rebounded nicely by defeating Alta 4-3 in extra innings to close out the tournament on a positive note.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth Rylan Hart walked in the game-winning run. The victory gave Helper third-place in the tournament and improved their season record to 3-2.

Individually Helper had several standout players receive recognition. Jordan Fossat won the “Big Stick” award for the tournament. Fossat also joined Braxton Bennett and Tyler Wright on the All-Tournament Team.

Helper will return to the field on Tuesday with a home night game against Springville to open up division play at 8:00 p.m.. The Merchants will then travel to Springville on Tuesday to wrap up the season set.

“If we can improve each day and not take steps backwards, then we’ll be just fine,” said Cisneros. “I’m happy with the way things are going. We’ve just got to continue the improvements now that we are starting league play.”

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