Team faces five games in three days The Powell Pioneers American Legion baseball team hits the road this Memorial Day weekend for the first of six regular-season tournaments on its schedule. The Pioneers are scheduled to play five games over the space of three days. “We expect the competition to be pretty good this weekend,” said Pioneers coach Mike Jameson. “This will be a good test to see where we stand and a good chance for guys to step up and really help us out.”

Powell will open tournament play at 11 a.m. on Saturday against the Emmanuel Halos. The game will take place at Dehler Park. As soon as that contest concludes, the team will hustle over to Pirtz Field to play a 2 p.m. contest against Riverton.

The Pioneers will face the same back-to-back situation at multiple locations on Sunday. The team will begin play at 11 a.m. at Billings' Urbaska Field against the Billings Cardinals. At 2 p.m., the team will face the Billings Blue Jays.

The Pioneers and Blue Jays split a doubleheader last Saturday.

The Pioneers conclude their tournament appearance with a game against the Lewistown (Mont.) Redbirds.

Tournament games will be played with a two-hour time limit. An eight-run rule will be applied after 4-1/2 innings, meaning the game will be suspended should a team lead by that margin or more when the losing team has already completed its at-bat for an inning.

Home and visiting team designation will be determined by a coin flip at the start of each game.

Other teams participating in the tournament include the Billings Royals, the Billings Scarlets, the Gallatin Valley Outlaws, the Big League Selects and the Laurel Dodgers. The Emmanuel Halos have entered two teams.

The Billings Memorial Day tournament also provides the Pioneers with the perfect buildup to a hectic month of June.

“We have conference games on Tuesday and Wednesday (after the tournament), so it is going to be about using our pitching smarts,” said Jameson. “Getting Josh (Cragoe) and Jake (Beuster) back will be helpful, as they have both seen lots of innings on the mound. Our goal is to come in, do our best and win our games.”

Powell opens conference play on Tuesday, June 1, with a game at Lovell. The following night, Lovell makes the short drive to Powell for a return engagement that will also count in the conference standings. The Panthers then hit the road for a three-day tournament in Riverton from June 3-5.

In all, the Pioneers are scheduled to play games on 22 of the 30 days during the month of June. The team will play in a total of four June tournaments, including the team's own Heavy Metal Classic, June 25-27.