North Stars catch Saturday Night Fever in wild win

Through Friday night, the 2010 North Star's Memorial Baseball Tournament had been a roller coaster for the Havre American Legion Baseball team.

But Saturday night's late-night affair between the North Stars and the Strathmore Reds from Calgary, Alberta, was more like a mega-coaster that wouldn't stop.

Trailing 8-3 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning Saturday night at Legion Field, the North Stars staged an epic comeback — one that was done with the bats and some creativity.

The North Stars sent nine batters to the plate in the fifth inning, starting with a Brayden Grimson single. That was the start of two straight innings in which Havre batted around. Grimson would eventually come around to score on a dropped fly ball, as did Justin Jensen.

After a C.J. Evans double, the North Stars got a single before Adam Briese drove in two runs with a double. Finally ahead 9-8, the game got even wilder as Roman Surber drilled a triple into the right-center field gap, then tried to score on a throwing error. But Surber and Strathmore catcher Dillon Vall Paris collided on the play at the plate, and Surber was ruled out and was ejected from the game for running into the catcher. American Legion and amateur rules prohibit runners from plowing into the catcher.

Still, one wild inning led to another for the North Stars, who were getting good late-inning pitching from Evans.

In the bottom of the sixth, the North Stars got a walk to start from the redhot Grimson. He eventually reached third on a Jensen single, then Kyle Miller, who was one of several North Stars to have a huge night at the plate, laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to plate Grimson. The onslaught would continue with hits by Evans and Mark Vukasin as the North Stars scored seven runs in the inning to end the game and overall, sent 11 batters to the dish in the frame.

The comeback was a boost for Havre, which had only produced three hits in a loss to Gallatin Valley on Friday night. But on Saturday against the Reds the North Stars hammered out 16 hits, including six extra-base knocks.

"It was as good, anytime you can have that many hits and play that kind of baseball it's good to see," Havre head coach Steve Fanning said. "We played well and though we were down early we kept playing. We got our runs in bunches and I like how we competed, we stepped up."

Jensen, Miller, Evans and Vukasin all went 3-for-4 for Havre, while that foursome, plus Briese, combined for 12 RBIs. Jensen had a triple, while Miller, Evans and Vukasin had doubles and hit the ball hard all night. Grimson, who has been one of Havre's best hitters the last two weeks, added a 2-for-4 night with a pair of stolen bases.

Evans also came up big for the North Stars on the mound.

After Strathmore jumped on the North Stars for four runs in the first inning, which included several Havre miscues in the field, he settled down and started to keep the Reds in check.

Eventually, Evans got his second straight complete-game win, allowing nine hits, striking out four and walking just four in six innings of work.

Things didn't go as well, and weren't as wild in Havre's 7-3 loss to the Gallatin Valley Outlaws on Friday night.

Gallatin Valley pitchers Daryn Allen and Sean Cronan combined to hold Havre to just three hits, and the North Star defense crumbled, committing five errors in the loss.

After falling behind 2-0, the North Stars looked to be in good shape as Surber, who took the loss, pitched well, only allowing five hits to the Outlaws.

And in the bottom of the second inning, the North Stars took the lead after Vukasin led off the inning with a single.

Vukasin, Briese and Jon Currie would all eventually come around to score, but those would be the only three times the North Stars would cross home plate on the night.

While Surber was pitching well, striking out seven in the complete-game loss, the Outlaws did scrape together two runs in the third inning to take a 4-3 lead, thanks in part to a Cameron Frost homerun over the center field fence.

The game remained scoreless until the Outlaws played some small ball in the seventh, and capitalized on three North Star errors in the inning. The Outlaws scored three times and Havre went down 1-2-3 in its half of the seventh to end the game.

Vukasin, Grimson and Brandon Smith collected the only hits for the North Stars in their loss to the Outlaws, a perennial Class A powerhouse. Grimson also had a run scored and a stolen base from his new-found home at the leadoff position.