The Missoula Paddleheads has its first major win, even before they take the field.

Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Taylor Rush, made the announcement on Tuesday the team won the award for the best new look in minor league baseball.

“I thought we had a chance but I knew it was going to take a lot of support from our community as well as supporters from even outside the community to win the voting,” said Rush. “We’re at a disadvantage due to our market size from the get go, and so today we were notified that we had won the contest and received the most national votes for the best new look in Minor League Baseball.”

Rush said the public has come around to the new team name and logo and support is growing to continue minor league baseball in Missoula.

“As time progressed, even before this award, we started to see a bit of a ‘J’ curve, I guess is the best way to say it, where people have accepted and embraced and this feels kind of like a cherry on top,” he said. “We now have national recognition and it’s something we can wear proudly.”

Now that the team has a new name and a new award winning logo, Rush said it’s time to introduce the new Paddleheads mascot, but they’ll need some held from the fans.

“There is going to be a contest to name the mascot,” he said. “We are in the final stages of proofing for our new mascot and there are a handful of us who know what it looks like, and we’ll like pick three or four favorite names and then let there be a public vote on those names and then we’ll have a name for our new mascot.”

The team was the Missoula Osprey for over 20 years, then the team was sold and now the Paddleheads era has officially begun, and it started with a big win.

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