North Stars play three good home games against Calgary

Welcoming in the Clagary Red Birds is never an easy task, but facing them three times in two days is even tougher, just ask the Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team.

Havre first basemen David Denny fields a throw during Saturday night's American Legion baseball game between the North Stars and Calgary at Legion Field.

The North Stars are young, and still have a lot of work to do. The Red Birds on the other hand, are a powerhouse, and have grown to be one of the tougher teams the North Stars face.

Calgary swept Havre in three games.

On Saturday at Legion Field in Havre, the Redbirds defeated the North Stars 19-11 in nine innings. And on Sunday in a home doubleheader, the North Stars suffered two more losses, losing 13-6 and 8-4 to the Red Birds.

"That was a really fundamentally sound team that we were playing," Head coach Danny Wirtzberger said. "When they cracked those first hits off of Tyrell Pierce in the first inning (on Saturday), I thought 'wow we are in for a show tonight.' But we settled down and we didn't allow any runs for a while. We started to get more confidence and really started to hit the ball well too. But Calgary is a good team and they are going to go far in their division. They had a lot of good pitchers and a lot of good batters."

In Saturday's loss, the North Stars gave up one too many big scoring innings to stay competitive.

Havre's Spencer Ross looks at a pitch during Saturday night's American Legion baseball game against Calgary at Legion Field in Havre.

After taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning, the Red Birds showed they brought their bats and were ready to play. They hit the ball hard and scattered the field with four base hits. They looked to be in control early and even stretched the lead to 6-0 through the top of the fourth. The North Stars did battle back, trailing just 6-3 after the fourth, but Havre couldn't keep the cap on the Red Birds long enough. The North Stars scored the three runs on no hits and two Calgary errors in the fourth, but

Havre continued to find ways to score, but so did Calgary.

The North Stars had eight hits in the game, but the pitching staff gave up 14. And while the North Stars took advantage of six Calgary errors, the Red Birds took advantage of seven North Star errors. But the biggest difference came in the eighth inning, when the Red Birds were able to come up 11 runs off of five hits and one error. Ryne Antley and Travis Roth were on the mound for the eighth, but found out first hand how tough the Calgary bats were.

Tyrell Pierce suffered the loss for the North Stars, pitching four innings.

Havre's Jase Kato dives for a foul ball during Saturday night's American Legion baseball game in Havre.

Havre did score one run in the sixth, one in the seventh, five in the eighth, and one more in the ninth, but the Red Birds' lead turned too big to surpass for the young North Stars.

Roth had a double in the game to help lead the way, while Pierce and Antley also had one hit each. Miguel Ley, Dustin Odegard, and Chance Pitkanen also had one hit each, while Deion Hammett was 2-for-3 with an RBI.

Havre and Calgary continued to battle twice on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Legion Field.

In the opening game of the double dip, the Red Birds may have jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but the North Stars battled behind pitcher Dan Warp. Havre got big hits by Holdsclaw, Pierce and David Denny, and late in the game, the North Stars led 6-5 and were on the verge of their first win of the season. However, the Red Birds exploded for an 8-run last inning and beat the North

Stars going away.

In that loss, Holdsclaw, Pierce and Denny each had two hits, as did Bryce Kinsella.

And in the finale, Havre quickly fell behind 5-0, but once again showed some moxie. A three-run fifth inning brought the North Stars back to within one run before Calgary put the game away with three runs in the top of the seventh inning.

"We really showed our youth this weekend, especially with how we started games. I think we gave up at least three runs in the each of the three first innings. And at the end of games, when we started to get back into it, whether we were up or down, we didn't know how to finish. We need to be more mentally tough and learn how to start and finish games, innings two through six, we won and I was proud of the middle of the games. We just have to learn how to start and finish," Wirtzberger said.

"Dane Warp pitched phenomenally. He is just 15 years old and decided to skip his last year of Babe Ruth, and today he proved he is ready to play in this league. He came on in relief for Jase Kato, who hurt his elbow right off the bat, but Dane only gave up two runs in 19 outs, that is six and one third innings. That was amazing," he added. "Another young kid who played well was Deion Hammett, he had a great day relieving for Spencer Ross, and held Calgary to only two runs too. So like I said, our guys down the middle, even in our pitching are doing great things, it is how we are starting and ending games that is giving us trouble."

Havre is back on the road this weekend as the North Stars open district play Sunday at the Great Falls Electrics.

Note: Havre Daily News sports editor George Ferguson contributed to this story.

SATURDAY

Calgary 19, Havre 11

Calgary 400 201 0(11)1 – 19 14 6

Havre 000 301 151 – 11 8 7

WP – Josh Trybuch; LP – Tyrell Pierce

Calgary – Luke Lepine 3-4 3RBIs, Stu Frizzel 2-4, Jaxson Houge 1-3 RBI, Vince Hanley 2-3 RBI, Braydon Persion 0-2, Jake Sakan 2-5 2RBI, Ryan Loeppky 1-3, Blake Enders 1-4, Jake House 0-1, Evan Cloutier 0-1, James Alton 1-2 RBI, Dan Janick 0-1 RBI.

Havre – Spencer Ross 1-2, Travis Roth 1-5, Thurman Holdsclaw 0-3, David Denny 0-2, Tyrell Pierce 1-2, Gavin Gunderson 1-2 RBI, Dane Warp 0-1, Jase Kato 0-2 RBI, Ryne Antley 1-2 RBI, Dustin Odegard 1-2, Deion Hammett 2-3 RBI, Kyle Gooch 0-1, Chance Pitkanen 1-2 RBI, Bryce Kinsella 0-2, Miguel Ley 1-2.

SUNDAY

Calgary 13, Havre 6

Calgary 300 020 8 – 13 5 3

Havre 203 001 0 – 6 10 3

Calgary – Luke Lepine 0-1, Stu Frizzel 0-1, Jaxson Houge 2-5 3RBIs, Vince Hanley 0-2, Ryan Loeppky 0-1, Blake Enders 0-4, Jake House 0-2 RBI, Evan Cloutier 0-3 RBI, James Alton 2-3, Dan Janick 0-2, Josh Tybouch 1-2 RBI.

Havre – Spencer Ross 0-2, Travis Roth 0-4, Thurman Holdsclaw 2-3, Tyrell Pierce 2-3 2RBI, David Denny 2-3 RBI, Gavin Gunderson 0-2, Chance Pitkanen 0-1, Brady Wolf 1-2 RBI, Kyle Gooch 0-1, Dustin Odegard 1-2, Bryce Kinsell 2-2 RBI.

Calgary 8, Havre 4

WP – Vince Hanley; LP – Spencer Ross

Calgary 230 000 3 – 8 6 2

Havre 000 130 0 – 4 8 6

Calgary – Luke Lepine 0-3, Josh Tybouch 0-2, Jaxson Houge 1-4, Braydon Perslon 1-4 RBI, Stu Frizzel 3-3 3RBIs, Ryan Loeppky 0-2, Dan Janick 0-3, James Alton 0-2, Evan Cloutier 1-2.

Havre – Spencer Ross 0-1, Travis Roth 0-4, Thurman Holdsclaw 2-3, Tyrell Pierce 1-3, David Denny 0-2, Jase Kato 1-2, Gavin Gunderson 1-2, Deion Hammett 1-2 RBI, Ryne Antley 0-2, Chance Pitkanen 0-2, Miguel Ley 0-1, Dustin Odegard 0-1, Kyle Gooch 0-1.