North Stars close with a four-game homestand

One weekend and four games is all that stands between the Havre North Stars American Legion baseball club and the postseason.

And those final four games of the regular season will be at the friendly confines of Legion Field in Havre.

Today at 6 p.m., the North Stars take on the Lethbridge Miners in a Northern A doubleheader, and Havre wraps up its season in Saturday at 1 p.m. with a Northern A twin bill against the Medicine Hat Monarchs.

And the four conference games this weekend in Havre are ultra-important.

The North Stars are riding an eight-game district winning streak and they sit at 11-13 in conference play. Two of those losses came earlier in the season to Medicine Hat, while the North Stars split with the Miners. And with seeding for the next week's Northern District tournament in the line, Havre would like nothing more than to carry the momentum it has built during its hot streak.

In the last eight league games, the North Stars have swept the Great Falls Stallions, the Tri-County Cardinals twice and the Vauxhall Spurs. And depending on where the North Stars end up by Saturday night, they could finish as high as third or fourth in the league standings.

But in order to that, Havre will need to get quality pitching to go along with its recent solid hitting and great defense. The North Stars have swung the bats very well in conference play the last three weeks, but they will need steady performances on the mound from aces Brandon Smith and Justin Jensen, as well as the entire Havre pitching rotation, because both the Miners and the Monarchs can hit the ball and produce runs.

Havre enters the final weekend of the regular season with a 16-22 overall record. The North Stars face Lethbridge tonight at 6 and Medicine Hat at 1 p.m. on Saturday.