To advance Pluto's point a bit, nearly every starting player for the Pioneers are Montana kids. The outfield goes Butte, Scobey, Florence and the infield goes Florence, Billings, Billings, Great Falls (and Polson) and the catcher is from Ronan. The four starting pitchers are from Belgrade, Scobey, Lewistown and Salt Lake City. The two main relievers are from Billings and Rupert, Idaho. So of the 15 guys that see consistent time, 13 are from Montana and many are from around the area.
I've never understood the argument that people don't support MCC because players aren't from around here. Look at UM or MSU. MCC has a far better percentage of Montana athletes than either of those, and most of the other schools. So I don't buy that argument.
As far as the metal bat thing, the MonDak Conference switched to wood bats the year after Patch died (although it was going to happen anyway, so it was of no relation to Patch's death.) So the Pioneers play their entire regular season with wood, and then switch to metal for the postseason tournaments. This seems to be the way a lot of Junior College, and even a couple NCAA, conferences have gone.
In the end, congrats to the Pioneers on their seventh straight MonDak regular season title, their sixth straight MonDak Tournament and their second straight Regional Tournament wins. (Although the second two were on technicalities, but we're counting it.)