Havre's season ends in heartbreak

The Havre American Legion baseball team had a goal entering this weekend's Northern District Tournament.

That goal was to not only win a district championship, but to make sure they qualified for the Class A state tournament.

And the North Stars were playing more than good enough to achieve that goal in the weeks leading up to this past weekend's tournament in Fort MacLeod, Alberta.

But things didn't go exactly to plan as Havre lost one heartbreaking game which kept it from a berth in the title tilt. Then the North Stars ran into one amazing pitcher, which abruptly ended their season.

After opening the tournament with a scintillating 4-3 win over Medicine Hat on Thursday, the North Stars found themselves locked in a dramatic second- round affair with the Lethbridge Miners on Friday afternoon.

After going ahead 1-0 on an RBI single by Kolby Sukut in the second inning, the Miners attacked the North Stars for eight runs on six hits and three walks in the third inning. An 8-1 lead in a tournament game seemed insurmountable, but the North Stars did their best to chip away.

Havre scored four runs in its half of the third as Kyle Miller crushed his ninth homerun of the season, a tworun shot, and CJ Evans and Sukut both drove in runs to follow. Miller doubled in the fifth and Brayden Grimson hit a sacrifice fly to drive him in to make the score 9-6.

The game remained that way until the ninth when the North Stars continued the rally. Mark Vukasin led off the inning with a single, Shane Kemmer doubled and Miller drove in yet another run with a sac fly. Brandon Smith then drove in the game-tying run with a single to send things into extra innings.

The Miners managed a run in their half of the 10th inning, but Havre tried to respond again. Grimson led off the 10th with a single and was moved over by Sukut. But from there, the North Stars couldn't get a run home, and with the loss, they dropped into the loser-out bracket.

"This was tough to swallow for all of us," Havre head coach Steve Fanning said. '"We battled back and were in position to win the game. I have to give credit to this team. We could have rolled over but we hung in there and were right there at the end. If we don't give up the eight-spot in the third this is a different game."

Miller was spectacular at the plate for Havre going 4-for-5 with a homer, two doubles and three RBIs. Kemmer went 1-for-5 with a double, Smith was 2-for-5 with an RBI, Evans was 2-for-4 with two doubles, Sukut was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Vukasin was 1-for-5.

Havre has been a resilient team all season, but the North Stars simply ran into the wrong pitcher in an elimination game against Fort MacLeod on Saturday morning. The Royal's ace held the North Stars to just three hits and no runs in a 13-0 win over Havre.

Miller started the game and held the Royals to just four runs in six innings.

But with Havre struggling to find any offense, the Royals began to pull away, scoring nine runs off Miller and reliever Justin Jensen in the seventh and eighth to put the game out of reach.

"This was very disappointing," Fanning said. "We are a much better team than what we showed. We were one hit away from going to the winner's final, then we're out of the tournament, just like that.

"I guess we had been playing so well that we were due for a bad game, bad timing," Fanning said. "I think this is where the consistency we had been talking about all year came in to play. We didn't have production 1-9 all weekend, and our defense was suspect in certain positions. Kyle Miller in my opinion was the tournament MVP. He did everything he could to get us to state. Against Lethbridge he played some of the best shortstop I've ever seen."

Despite the bitter losses and a difficult end to the season, the North Stars achieved plenty of success this summer, going 31-21 overall and finishing second in the Northern District during the regular season.

"This was a good team. They should keep their heads up on a great season," Fanning said. "This was a tough conference, I know that we could go to the state tournament and compete, I know the kids wanted to get there, it just didn't happen. It was a pleasure to coach these 18 and 19-year-olds that will be leaving. I hope to see some of the them playing college ball over the next couple years. I also hope to see the rest of the team back next year with some new faces as well. I'd like to thank everyone that has supported us this season, we appreciate it."

The Northern District Tournament wrapped up on Sunday evening with the Great Falls Electrics crushing Lethbridge 25-14 in the championship game.

Both the Electrics and the Miners move on to the Class A state tournament this week in Billings.