It was enough to make a baseball purist’s eyes mist over.

Standing astride the base paths leading from first and third to home plate, were the players. Snow capped mountains dominated the background as the National Anthem played in the foreground.

Moments later, with a nod and a point from the home plate umpire, high school baseball had arrived in Sanders County for the first time.

Plains pitcher Joseph Pullen threw the first pitch, a strike.

And although the home team Plains/Hot Springs Savage Heat lost 16-2 to the Frenchtown Broncs, baseball’s arrival at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 30 was a welcome site to the bundled fans enjoying cool Spring sunshine and the spectacle that is our National Pastime.

Frenchtown scored a lone run in the top of the first inning, a symbolic first tally in a day of firsts for Sanders and Mineral County fans who filled the aluminum bleachers and set up overflow chairs of their own along the foul lines.

Plains did not score until the fourth inning, and the game was all but decided by then as starting pitcher Pullen battled to keep the Savage Horsemen, a nickname derived from the co-op between Plains and Hot Springs schools to provide players for the team, in the game.

A series of errors, no doubt due in part to first game of the century jitters and early season miscues against a strong, Class A opponent, played a part in Frenchtown blowing the game open in the top of the second inning when they plated seven runs to take an 8-0 lead.

The Broncs would add three more scores in the third, two in the fourth and three more in the fifth inning on their way to a 16-2 lead by the end of the fifth and final inning of play due to the Mercy rule.

Along the way Plains scored solo runs in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings but it was too little too late for the home team.

Baseball was under way.

The co-op boys of Spring returned to action this past Saturday in Eureka where they snuck in a game amid rain and snow showers that wreaked havoc on sporting events throughout the area.

Plains took their first lead of the year when they pushed across a solo run in the top of the first inning. But that lead was erased in the bottom half of the inning when the host Lions scored twice, taking a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way.

The Lions erupted for six runs in the bottom of the second frame, then tacked on two more in their half of the third to take a 10-1 lead. Neither team scored in the fourth.

Eureka plated two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to stretch their lead to 12-1, which would be the final score.

The loss dropped Plains/Hot Springs to 0-2 on the year, while Eureka moved to 2-0 in the early stages of this first season of play.

Next up for the Savage Horsemen is a game at Mission this Thursday afternoon. They return home Thursday, April 13 for a game versus Polson starting at 4 p.m. at the Amundson Sports Complex near the Plains airport.