Butte Little League baseball player Cruz Clary and the Copper City Softball 8-10 All-Stars are this Week’s Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week.

Clary takes home the boys’ award after the Mile High All-Stars came within two wins of representing Montana in the Western Regional Tournament in San Bernardino, California. The Butte boys dropped a pair of one-run games in the best-of-three State Championship Series to Boulder Arrowhead of Billings on the Ron Godbout Memorial Field at Father Sheehan Park.

Cruz was a huge part of the team, but he had to sit out the championship series after suffering a gruesome injury two weeks earlier during pool play in Dillon. While pitching, Cruz took a line drive off his face, and it fractured two bones around his left eye.

Still, Cruz showed up every day and did whatever he could to support his teammates on their quest for greatness.

Cruz, who turned 11 on Sunday, will be a fifth grader at Hillcrest Elementary School this upcoming school year. In addition to pitching, he played third base and the outfield.

The girls’ honor goes to the Copper City Softball 8-10 All-Stars after they played their hearts out at the Montana State Tournament in Billings July 18-20.

The team had numerous standout performances, but the pitchers and catchers worked particularly hard through the heat and adversity of playing some great teams from Eastern Montana. Taylor Benski led the team in innings pitched and threw 19 strikeouts. Kyla McEwen and Anna Yates both entered games in difficult situations and were able to get out of jams, keeping the Copper City All-Stars in their respective games.  

Caelyn Comfort and Austyn Sholey shared the catching duties in the heat and dusty conditions. Comfort smacked four hits, drove in four runs and scored four times over the weekend.

The team, which took home the District 2 championship in Great Falls last month, went 1-3 at State.

Team members are Bensky, McEwen, Yates, Comfort, Sholey, Khloe Solomon, Ella Briggs, Parker Gilbreath, Cora Stosich, Shea Whitaker, Loghan Smith and Morgan Conway. Cullen Gilbreath is the manager, and Jenny McEwen and Chris Benski are coaches.

For the third year, Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warranty, is teaming up with the ButteCast to honor the finest student-athletes from the Mining City to encourage more children to get up, get out and try all kinds of sports and activities.