Northstars roll past Sparkies

In their second trip to Great Falls in as many days, the Havre Northstars continued to beat up on Northern District foes with a doubleheader sweep of the Great Falls Sparkies at Don Olson Memorial field.

Havre opened the doubleheader with a 7-3 win thanks to the scorching bat of Ian Spencer.

Spencer ripped a pair of home runs, added another single and drove in three runs to lead the Northstars to the win.

Trent Normandy got Havre's offense rolling the first inning with a two-run double to give the Northstars a 2-0 lead. Patch Wirtzberger added an RBI single in the second inning to push the lead to 3-0.

Great Falls rallied with two runs in the third to cut the lead to 3-2, but Havre answered in the fifth as Wirtzberger singled and Spencer smacked scored him with a two-run home run.

Spencer provided some insurance in the seventh with a solo home run, while Jeff Tibbals chipped in with an RBI single.

Great Falls mustered just one run in the seventh off of starter Bret Magelssen.

Despite giving up 13 hits to the Sparkies, Magelssen still found a way to pick up his team leading eight win on the mound. He struck out five batters and walked just one in seven innings of work.

"Bret gutted out a win," said Northstars manager Mickey Williams. "He didn't have his sharpest stuff, but he did what he had to do to get outs and our defense was really solid and made all the plays behind him."

Spencer finished the game 3-4 with three RBIs. Normandy, Wirtzberger and Tibbals added two hits each for the Northstars.

In the nightcap, Havre's hitting only seemed to get hotter, pounding out 10 runs on 11 hits and ending the game in five innings via the 10-run mercy rule with a 10-0 win.

Havre broke open a 0-0 game in the third inning as Spencer hit his third home run of the day - a two-run shot - to give the Northstars a 2-0 lead. After a Normandy single Jordon Patterson ripped an RBI double and later scored on a Daine Solomon single to move the lead to 4-0. Tibbals kept the inning going, scoring Solomon with a triple to push the lead to 5-0.

After a one-inning reprieve, Havre went back to punishing Sparkie pitching in the fifth. Solomon drove in two with a single and Wirtzberger added a run-scoring single as the Northstars scored five more runs on six hits to bump the lead to 10-0.

While the Northstars were basically running laps around the bases, Cory Junck was barely letting the Sparkies get to base.

Junck faced 18 batters in five innings and allowed just four hits in the shutout win. He overpowered Sparkie hitters for nine strikeouts while walking just one batter to improve his record to 3-3 on the season.

"Cory was pretty tough," Williams said. "They didn't hit many balls hard off him. He really hit his spots and pretty much dominated hitters."

Spencer and Solomon had two hits each and combined to drive in five runs. Wirtzberger, Normandy and Tibbals added two hits a piece in the win.

"Ian and Trent really hit the ball well for us today," Williams said. "They've been very consistent for us all season and they seem to get key hits when there are runners are on, or when we need them."

Spencer leads Havre in almost every statistical category with a .500 batting average and a .589 on-base percentage. He also has 13 doubles, eight home runs and 47 RBIs. Normandy is hitting .447 - just a point behind Solomon - and has 37 RBIs and three triples on the season.

With the two wins, the Northstars stranglehold on the Northern District grows a little tighter. Havre is 16-0 in conference games and 32-15 overall.

"You always want to win conference games," Williams said. "And we seem to be playing good baseball at the right time."

Havre travels to Vauxhall on Saturday for a Northern District doubleheader.