Starting the American Legion Tournament off with back-to-back wins the Helper Merchants were on a roll, however on Tuesday night the Merchants faced the host team Mountain Crest and came up on the short end of a 5-4 loss.

The game started slow as both teams went scoreless in the first. Helper struck first throwing one run up in the bottom half of the second and then it was back and forth the remainder of the seven innings.

Offensively for the Merchants, it was a quiet day at the plate with runs coming at a premium. Jakob Vasquez got things going in the second with a fly out to right field that allowed Derek Robison to score. Helper added another run in the third when Ridge Nelson came home on a wild pitch to take a 2-1 lead.

It wasn’t until the fifth, with Helper down 3-2 Nelson would send a single to left field that would bring home Peyton Molinar and Braxtin Henrie to recapture the lead 4-3. That is where the rally would stop as the Merchants went cold and would never get anything going again for the rest of the game.

Jordan Fossat got the start on the mound for Helper and in the first inning faced just four batters striking out two of them and getting one to ground out to first. Helper surrendered it’s first run in the third, and Fossat would hang in there until the fifth when Dallen O’Neil replaced him entering the game with a 4-3 Helper lead. O’Neil would finish out the game giving up two runs in the fifth.

Nelson went 1-4, scoring a run and driving in two RBI’s. Robison was 1-2, scoring two runs and Vasquez drove in a run. Chet Anderson turned in a 2-4 performance from the plate in the loss.

Fossat went five giving up four earned runs on nine hits and struck out five. O’Neil came in to finish out the game with one earned and struck out one giving up four hits.

Helper will take to the field again today at 4p.m. when they face St. George.