East Helena beats Lone Peak 9-6, extends winning streak to three games

East Helena kept its late-April surge alive Tuesday at Ryan Park, outlasting Lone Peak 9-6 for a third straight home win and a third victory over the Big Horns this season. The result gave the Vigilantes three straight wins overall and strengthened their position in the Class ABC-Central race as the state tournament picture starts to come into focus.

The Vigilantes entered the game at 5-6 overall and 5-2 in division play, good for second place in the Class ABC-Central standings. Lone Peak came in at 1-5 and riding a three-game losing streak, but East Helena still had to finish the job in a game that carried more weight than the record line suggested. With the 2026 Montana High School Association state A/B baseball tournament set for May 28-30 at O’Malley Park in Polson, every division result now shapes both momentum and seeding.

East Helena’s recent run has been especially timely for a fourth-season varsity program still chasing its first postseason baseball appearance in school history. The Vigilantes had already beaten Lone Peak 11-1 on April 1, and Tuesday’s 9-6 decision marked the third time East Helena has handled the Big Horns this spring. The team also carried in a 13-3 win over Townsend on April 21, a stretch that has helped build belief inside East Helena High School and across the Lewis and Clark County baseball community.

The numbers show how sharp East Helena has been during the climb. The Vigilantes had won two straight before facing Lone Peak and had outscored opponents by an average of 7.5 runs over that span, a sign that the offense is producing while the team keeps stacking results at home. For a program still trying to break through into postseason play, those kinds of stretches matter as much as any single box score.

Head coach Ethan Hoffman said in March that the team expected to be playing postseason baseball in mid-May, and the next few weeks will test that expectation. But Tuesday’s win, paired with the earlier rout of Lone Peak and the recent victory over Townsend, showed East Helena is still moving in the right direction at exactly the right time.