Northstars continue roll in district

The Havre Northstars completed a conference season sweep over the Great Falls Stallions, picking up three wins on Sunday in Northern District Action at Legion Field.

Three wins?

Indeed, because of a protest of a June 22 game, Havre and Great Falls were forced to pick up action from the top of the fifth inning of that game with the Northstars leading 5-3.

And like the last time the Northstars broke the game open, ending the game with a 14-4 win. It was the same final score as the protested game back in June.

With the controversial game out of the way, Havre picked up two more wins to remain undefeated in Northern District play.

Havre rode the solid pitching of Cory Junck to a 4-1 win in the opening game.

Junck was just about unhittable in picking up his fifth win of the season. He worked all seven innings, allowing just three hits and an unearned run. Junck showed sharp control, striking out nine and not walking a batter.

"Cory was solid," said Northstars manager Mickey Williams. "He got ahead of batters by challenging them early in the count. He's really starting to get in a groove."

With Junck cruising on the mound, the Havre offense scratched together enough runs and hits to get the win.

After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first, Havre scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning and never looked back.

Back-to-back singles from Patch Wirtzberger and Ian Spencer started the rally. Wirtzberger later scored on a Jordon Patterson single, while Spencer and Patterson scored on errors to give Havre a 3-1 lead.

The Northstars tacked on an insurance run in the fourth as Ben Erickson led off the inning with a single and later scored on a Daine Solomon base hit.

Havre finished with nine hits - all singles - in the game. Solomon and Spencer had two hits each to lead the Northstars.

The offense came to life in the nightcap as Havre notched a 9-3 win.

The Northstars racked up nine runs on 12 hits and capitalized on four Stallions errors in the win.

Chase Castloo battled some mild control problems to pick up the win on the mound for Havre.

Castloo allowed two earned runs on six hits and overcame four walks by striking out nine in seven innings of work.

"The only time Chase gets himself in trouble is when he walks batters," Williams said. "Four walks isn't bad, but anytime you walk a batter it just makes things tough on you the rest of the inning."

The walks didn't hurt Castloo quite as bad because of some solid run support.

Havre put the game out of reach in its first at-bat, scoring six runs on seven hits and batting around the order in the first inning.

Ian Spencer ripped a two-run single to get the Northstars on the board. Junck added a sacrifice fly to score another run, and Ben Erickson lashed a two-run double to the right-center gap. Eric Fanning topped off the inning with an RBI single to push the lead to 6-0.

The Northstars scored two more runs in the third off a pair of Great Falls errors and added another run in the sixth on a Junck RBI single.

"Our hitting was a little better in the second game," Williams said. "We did a better job of getting hits with runners on base and making things happen."

Wirtzberger had a team-high three hits and scored a pair of runs. Spencer and Fanning had two hits each for the Northstars.

Havre returns to action on Wednesday at Legion Field when it takes on the Fort MacLeod Royals in a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m.

Havre 4, Great Falls 1

Great Falls Stallions 100 000 0 - 1 3 1

Havre Northstars 300 100 x - 4 9 2

K. Hatley and E. Burrows; Cory Junck and Ricky Houim

WP - Junck; LP - Hatley.

STALLIONS HITTING - T. Murray 0-3, R. Hedstrom 1-3, E. Burrows 0-3, P. Parrish 1-3, B. Thompson 0-3, C. Lewis 0-3, J. Blair 1-2, Z. Garrity 0-1, Z Griffith 0-2.

NORTHSTARS HITTING - Daine Solomon 2-4 (RBI), Patch Wirtzberger 1-3, Ian Spencer 1-3, Trent Normandy 2-3, Jordon Patterson 1-2 (RBI), Jeff Tibbals 0-2, Ben Erickson 1-3, Ricky Houim 0-2, Chase Castloo 1-3.

2B - none

3B - none

HR - none

Havre 9, Great Falls 3

Great Falls Stallions 000 000 3 - 3 6 4

Havre Northstars 602 001 x - 9 12 3

P. Parrish (5), C. Lewis (1) and J. Coleman; Chase Castloo and Patch Wirtzberger.

WP - Castloo; LP - Parrish

STALLIONS HITTING - B. Thompson 0-3, R. Hedstrom 0-3, K. Hatley 0-3, E. Burrows 2-4, T. Murray 2-4, J. Coleman 1-3, P. Parrish 0-2, K. DeBolt 0-1, Z. Griffith 0-1, O. Yurko 1-2, T. Meredith 0-0, J. Bates 0-1, T. Wilke 0-1.

NORTHSTARS HITTING - Daine Solomon 1-3, Patch Wirtzberger 3-4, Ian Spencer 2-3 (2 RBI), Trent Normandy 1-4, Jordon Patterson 1-4, Jeff Tibbals 0-3, Cory Junck 1-3 (2 RBI), Ben Erickson 1-2 (2 RBI), Bret Magelssen 0-1, Eric Fanning 2-4 (RBI).

2B - Erickson, Murray, Coleman

3B - Burrows

HR - none