Baseball season underway, but in the gym
AC Chilton warms up during practice last week. (Chris Peterson photo)
The Columbia Falls inaugural baseball team should be solid right out of the gate.
If only the snow would melt.
The season was supposed to start last weekend, but games against Corvallis and Hamilton were canceled because there’s still snow on the ground. It hasn’t been a particularly snowy winter overall, but it has been a long one, and as such, not much snow has melted.
If the weather holds, teams may be on the field this week, but this week is also spring break.
First-year coach Bill Sapa likes this squad.
“We got a good group of guys,” he said while he hit infield grounders inside the high school gym last week. “Pretty tickled for the first year.”
All told there are seven players who also played for the Glacier Twins, as well as a host of multi-sport athletes.
Twins players include catcher AC Chilton, Talon Murphy, Dayne Tu and Ethan Austin to name a few. Other talented athletes are also on the squad, including Jace Hill, Alihn Anderson, Mark Robison, Josiah Kilman and Cody Schweikert, and Sapa’s son, Reggie.
All told about 40 players tried out, with 30 on the squad.
Sapa is no stranger to the sport and coaching. He played for the Twins when he was in high school and was a gifted player for the University of New Mexico in college.
He was drafted as a left-handed pitcher by the New York Yankees, but never played professionally as that same year his brother Jimmy and fellow baseball player Ray Johnsrud were killed when their car collided with a train.
Sapa came home to support his family instead of playing professional ball.
Sapa has been an assistant football coach under Columbia Falls coach Jaxon Schweikert for the past 10 years.
All told the team has seven seniors. If the weather gets better, the team is scheduled to open the season with a game against Browning in Cut Bank on April 1.
The rest of the schedule includes games against Troy, Eureka (Lincoln County), Frenchtown Polson and Stevensville, with an invitational tournament May 12-13. The state tournament is May 18-20 in Butte.