East Helena Vigilantes Chase First State Tournament Bid in Program's Fourth Year

Rain forced a 45-minute wait before first pitch at Field 13, but the delay did little to diminish what was at stake. East Helena entered its fourth season as a varsity program with an explicit goal it has never achieved: a trip to the state tournament.

The Vigilantes, sitting at 2-2, faced Billings Central, the defending Class A state champions. The Rams, under coach Mike Martinson, won the state title in their very first varsity season, defeating Belgrade 4-3 on May 24, 2025, in Hamilton. In their second year, Billings Central arrived at Field 13 with a 5-1 record.

Head coach Ethan Hoffman has been the only coach in East Helena baseball history. The Sidney, Montana native played American Legion ball and attended the University of Montana before being hired by the East Helena school board when it approved the sport ahead of the 2023 season. He brought roughly four years of high school coaching experience to a program starting from nothing. The Vigilantes opened that first year with wins over Browning but failed to reach the postseason in each of the program's first three seasons.

Hoffman credited Granite Peak Athletics, a local indoor facility that replaced the elementary school gym the team used for preseason workouts, as transformative. "This has been a game changer for us," he said.

Killian Snarr became the program's first player to earn a college baseball commitment, a milestone that has arrived without a postseason appearance to accompany it. East Helena, population 2,311, is the smallest city in Lewis and Clark County, a county of 70,973 residents that stretches across roughly 3,459 square miles.

The Vigilantes have three more years of program history than Billings Central and nothing yet to show in postseason play. Closing that gap is the entire point of this season.