But those six are pretty good ballplayers, and with the addition of a group of Class A guys who helped last year’s Reps to 44 victories, the Senators have the potential to be a competitive club in the Montana-Alberta AA league.

Helena’s season season-opener takes place on Saturday as the Senators host Class A Lewistown in a doubleheader at Kindrick Legion Field. The first pitch is slated for 1 p.m.

“We are a very athletic team with guys that like to compete,” said first-year coach Jon Burnett, who replaced longtime coach Dave Thennis. “(But) we will need to mature quickly.”

Helena placed fourth in the conference last year and went 2-2 at the state tournament to finish with a 32-25 mark.

Shortstop Colin Sassano, the 2016 Earl Tucker trophy recipient as team batting champ and second-leading hitter last year, leads the returning veterans.

Two years ago, Sassano hit .386, while pacing the team with 76 hits, 55 runs, and a .513 slugging percentage. In 2017, he batted .388 and topped the squad with 47 runs and six triples, and was second with 64 hits, a .474 on base percentage and .527 slugging.

The multi-talented Sassano owns the rare distinction of earning all-state citations in four different sports; Legion AA baseball, football (safety) and track (1,600 relay) for Capital High, and hockey with the state high school champion Helena Bighorns.

“We have a lot of good young players moving up from the Reps along with some guys returning from last year," said Sassano, who was a redshirt freshman on Carroll College's football team last fall. “It may take a bit for some of the guys to settle into AA play, but I think we have the chance to be a pretty good team.”

Three other returnees also happen to be the aces of last year’s pitching staff, although one of those – Keaton Ralston – will be on the sidelines this weekend.

Ralston received the 2017 Ace Kindrick award as the team's top hurler, in addition to the Stanley Foote award as Most Improved Player/Rookie of the Year. He went 6-1 on the hill with a 2.62 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 72 innings.

“Keaton is injured and will be out for the start of the season, we aren’t sure of a timetable for his return at this time,” Burnett said.

Stablemates Brett Jacobs and Tayler Carlson each posted 6-3 marks.

“All the other teams in the state see us as a young and inexperienced team,” said Carlson, regarding the team’s potential. “But I believe we will prove those teams wrong and (we will) have a very successful season.”

The rest of the squad’s veterans are pitcher/first baseman Andrew Rosston and outfielder Conor McCarvel.

Among the new Senators are Reps batting champ Kadyn Craigle (catcher), who batted .407, and Hunter Sickerson (pitcher/first baseman), who went 9-2 on the bump with a 1.42 ERA.
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Other Reps players moving up include Ty McGurran (outfield), Matt Krieger (infield/pitcher), Riley Chisholm (infield/pitcher), Ryan Barrett (pitcher), Grady Koenig (utility), Jacob Howell (catcher/first base), Zach Spiroff (outfield/pitcher), Brady Grigsby (first baseman), Dylan Steinmetz (pitcher), Seth Barrett (outfielder/pitcher) and Cy Miller (pitcher/outfielder).

Those selected to the 2017 Southern All-Conference team were Krieger, McGurran and Koenig.

Hunter Kirkpatrick (infielder/pitcher/catcher) is a transfer from Oregon. He plays for the Under Armour national team and was rated the No. 1 shortstop in the state of Oregon for the 2020 graduating class, according to Perfect Game recruiting service.

“We are a very athletic team with guys that like to compete,” said Burnett, who compiled a career record of 287-119 record during his seven years directing the Reps. “We have lots of multi-sport athletes and they come to practice every day ready to push their teammates. They play with energy and fly around the field.”

Regarding replacing legendary coach Thennis — whose teams garnered three state titles and won 656 games in 20 seasons — Burnett related how his mentor “taught me that this program is about so much more that just the product on the field, it is about the kids.”

He noted that everyone spends so much time together in the summer that they become a family, and “it’s more about building relationships and continuously growing together,” and learning from each other.

As for the current crop of Senators, Burnett described how “there are games where we will be running seven or eight guys out there that are new to the AA. It’s a long season though, and we will continually grow and hope to be playing great baseball in July.”