Royals And Mavericks Ready For 2025 Northwest Regional Challenge

Billings Hosts a Battle of Champions

The 2025 American Legion Northwest Regional is underway in Billings, Montana, featuring two teams from Montana: The Missoula Mavericks and the Billings Royals. These two will face off against six teams from Alaska (Anchorage Service Cougars), Oregon (Portland Barbers), Washington (Yakima Valley Pepsi-Pak), Idaho (Idaho Falls Bandits), Colorado (Fort Collins Lambkins), and Wyoming (Gillette Roughriders), who played through and won their State tournaments last weekend.

How the Mavs Punched Their Ticket to Regionals

The Missoula Mavericks join those six teams with a “Champion” title of their own, after winning the 2025 Montana/Alberta State Tournament in Medicine Hat, Alberta. You can read the recap of that tournament in my article Complete Coverage Of The 2025 Montana/Alberta Legion AA State Tournament. The Mavericks played five games over the weekend, defeating the Great Falls Chargers 2-0 in the first round on Wednesday, followed by a win over the Billings Scarlets 1-0 on Thursday.

That left them as one of two teams undefeated in the tournament, setting up a Friday matchup with the Helena Senators, whom they edged out 2–1. Game thirteen of the tournament, and game four for the Mavs, saw them face their fellow Montana Regional representative, the Billings Royals. In a high-scoring affair, the game went down to the wire, ending in a walk-off walk that gave the Mavericks a 10–9 victory and eliminated the Royals. In the championship game, Missoula once again faced the Scarlets — and this time, they left no doubt, run-ruling them in six innings, 10–0. The Mavericks will face the Fort Collins Lambkins at 4:00 p.m.

Home Turf, New Life

But why are the Royals in the Regional? American Legion rotates hosting locations for its end-of-season tournaments and gives the hosting team an automatic bid. This year, the Royals host at Dehler Park — and much like the Monarchs, who earned a bid to State in Medicine Hat despite finishing 8–29 (2–22) on the year, the Royals now have a chance to write their own Cinderella story. They’ll take on the Idaho Falls Bandits at 7:00 p.m., after the opening ceremonies.

Stay tuned for updates on the Regional throughout the weekend.