Fifty years ago, the Helena Wranglers were "double" Copper League baseball champions. After winning the 1958 regular season crown, the Wranglers defeated the Butte McQueens 3-1 in a five-game series in the dramatic league championship series. All four contests were decided by one run.

The Copper League was a six-team semi-pro loop comprised of the Wranglers, McQueens, Anaconda, East Helena Smelterites, Butte South-Side Parks and Butte Miners.

The 1958 Wranglers were directed by player/manager Bud Sautter. Sautter, who played first base, had been a former minor player with the Great Falls Selectrics.

"I learned a lot of baseball from Bud Sautter," said Rollie Fisher, the Wranglers centerfielder in '58, in a telephone interview from his home in Lincoln.

The Helena club captured the regular season with a 22-8 record. McQueens finished second at 15-15.

The Wranglers' top hitter was Arnie Pleasant, of Washington State University. His .430 batting average was the third-highest in the league. Pleasant led the team in five offensive categories: 37 hits, 32 runs, 30 RBI and 11 stolen bases. He shared the lead with three triples (with Gary Schmidt) and two home runs (with John Cloud and Glenn Sorensen).

The rest of the club's .300 hitters included Dick Santini at .381, Cloud with a .365 mark, Sorensen at.316 (eight doubles), Don Smidt at .309, and Earl Fred at .302.

Helena's Dick Montee paced the Copper League in pitching that year with a 10-2 record, and was second with a 2.10 ERA. As a Legion player for Billings in 1957, Montee performed an incredible feat of three consecutive no-hitters. Teammate Jack Sautter, Bud's brother, tied for the second-most wins with a 9-3 mark.

In the semifinal playoffs, the Wranglers downed Anaconda in two straight games. The Smelterites were eliminated by McQueens in three games. Some of East Helena's top players were Terry Screnar, Jim Petek, Gene Richeson, Jerry and Keith Foster, Whitey Armstrong and Dave Webster.

In the best-of-five 1958 championship series, McQueens won the opener, 6-5. Jack Hawe outpitched Montee, each hurler giving up four and five hits, respectively. The Mining City pitcher helped his own cause with a 2-RBI single, one of the runs being scored by shortstop Bob "Putter" Petrino. Hawe was the uncle of current Helena Lady Bengals softball coach John Hawe. And yes, it was the same Bob Petrino who later coached Carroll College football for 27 years.

Helena evened the series by winning the second game 10-9, as Pleasant, Cloud, Fred and catcher Tom Hanrahan stroked two hits apiece. Sorensen's fourth-inning single, driving in Hanrahan, turned out to be the winning run. Bruce Montgomery relieved an injured Jack Sautter in the first. Montee then took over in the third and went the final four innings for the win.

In the third game, the Wranglers prevailed in six innings at Butte's Duggan Memorial Park, 8-7. The game was called due to darkness. Back then, Helena and East Helena possessed the only lighted fields in the league.

Bud Sautter and shortstop Earl Fred stroked three hits each. Sautter banged out a pair of doubles and drove in two runs, while Fred crossed the plate three times. Montgomery went the distance on the bump for the win.

The Wranglers then clinched the championship at home, beating Butte 5-4.

"Pitcher Sherman Platts allowed the Flatbush squad only six hits, two after a shaky first frame, and received stellar support from the field in the clutch," according to the Independent Record. "Little Davey Bond, the Wranglers 16-year old second baseman from Townsend, twice drove in runs with timely singles, and then pulled off a spectacular double play to end the game."

Platts gave up three runs in the first inning before settling down the rest of the way to twirl a complete-game victory.

"Bud Sautter called me up at work and told me he needed me to pitch, because no one else was available," Platts recalled. "It was my first year in Helena, and I had always been a fastpitch softball pitcher before that. The main thing I remember about that championship game, is that Davey Bond saved my bacon several times."

Rollie Fischer scored the tying and winning runs. In the bottom of the fourth stanza, he sped home from third base on Pleasant's sacrifice fly. In the sixth, Fisher bunted a single, stole second, went to third on a groundout, and romped home on Fred's game-winning single.

In the top of the seventh, with the tying run on second and one down, Bond raced back to the outfield grass to snare a liner with one hand and flipped to Fred to end the game.

"I worked for Lowe Construction that summer, and I had an agreement with my boss to go to work at six in the morning, so I could get off at three to practice or play for the Wranglers," Fisher said. "I remember that the games were always packed -- especially those games between Helena and East Helena."

Both Platts and Fisher later competed against Charley Pride, when the future country-western star came to play for the Smelterites in 1960.

Reporter Curt Synness: 449-2150 or curt52s@bresnan.net