Weather forces fast changes to Montana’s big baseball finals

Montana’s high school baseball tournament just got squeezed by rain and wind. Organizers scrapped the original four-day plan and folded everything into Friday and Saturday at 3 Legends Stadium in Butte. The final championship game now starts at 7 p. m. Friday, just one day after most teams were supposed to arrive. The bracket flip changed who plays when. Thursday night Butte High, the host school, had to step onto the field at 4 p. m. , while Glacier High from Kalispell and Great Falls’ Russell team warmed up at 10 a. m. Earlier forecasts must have looked grim, so officials wanted to finish early and dodge storms rolling in from the west.Semifinal matchups Friday morning feel short on rest. The first two elimination games line up at 11 a. m. and 1:30 p. m. , leaving coaches little time to adjust lineups or pitchers. Quality of play could drop if players are still stiff from the previous night’s game. No consolation game will be played this year. The third-place contest disappeared from the schedule altogether, saving an extra hour but taking away a chance for non-finalists to show their skills. Schools now focus only on the semifinals and the title tilt. The shortened format also means early losers pack up that same day. Losers from the first two Thursday games get one more shot Friday morning; if they drop again, they’re done for good. Winners keep climbing toward the 7 p. m. showdown, but fatigue might become as big an opponent as the opposing team.