Ponies top Laurel at Great Falls Jamboree

The Class AA Great Falls Jamboree is never an easy way for the Havre High softball team to start a new season, but like they do so often, the Blue Ponies returned home having found some success and getting quality reps against a great field of competitors.

Spending all day Saturday in Great Falls, the Central A Ponies went 1-3 in their four games. In the jamboree format, five-inning games, or a one-hour time limit, these games will not count against the Ponies record. But nonetheless, HHS had its hands full. Billings West defeated the Ponies 4-0 and Billings Senior followed with an 11-3 win over the Ponies. Havre would step up with a 5-0 win over Laurel, but Butte handed the Ponies a 17-1 loss to end the day.

“One of the things we found that we need to work on, is stopping the bleeding in between innings by giving up extra outs,” Havre High head coach Danny Wirtzberger said. “That is when a lot of runs came in on us, outs that we should have had, and then a team scores five runs after that with two outs. We will start to clean that up. But this was also the first time we saw live pitching, and I think we faced some of the best pitchers in the state. We did a fantastic job of putting the ball in play, but didn’t come up with the base hits we needed against the Class AA teams.”

In the win over the Class A Laurel Locomotives, the Ponies did a lot of things right.

The Ponies jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead, and after adding another run in the third, and two more in the fourth, HHS was able to get Rachel Majeres the win in the pitching circle. Majeres pitched four innings against the Locomotives and gave up just five hits in the shutout victory. A solid defensive effort backed Majeres as the Ponies did not commit an error in the win.

Havre also had its best offensive outing of the weekend in the win.

With eight hits, the Ponies were able to rally for the five runs, while also taking advantage of one Locomotive error. Havre also had eight hits against Butte, but couldn’t produce the runs. Shaniah Carlson and Harlee Boucher had great appearances at the plate against Laurel, both going 2-of-3 with one RBI apiece. But Paige Henderson grabbed three hits and two RBIs to lead the Ponies, while Majeres also had one hit.

“There were some girls that hit great all day, no matter who the opponent was,” Wirtzberger said. “Paige Henderson, Dani Wagner, and Rachel Majeres really had a great day, but Harlee Boucher and Shania Carlson also stepped up throughout the weekend and made some things happen in that win. We had girls step up and get hits, get the ball in play, some sacrifice bunts and some steals. Those are the things we needed to work on going into the weekend. But Rachel also pitched a fantastic game, she pitched strong, and the defense backed her up.”

In the loss to Billings West the Ponies had just one hit and committed four errors. Majeres had the lone hit for HHS. And in the loss to Billings Senior, the Ponies limited their errors to one, but also grabbed their three runs off of six hits. Morgan Mazurkiewicz, Carlson, Scout Boucher, and Tori Mazurkiewicz all had one hit each, while Carlson and Boucher each had a RBI as well. Henderson had another solid outing with a 2-for-2 appearance at the plate. Butte racked up 20 hits against Wagner in the pitching circle, but HHS came up with eight hits of its own. Wagner had a 2-for-2 outing, as did Henderson and Majeres. Majeres also had an RBI, while Harlee Boucher and Scout Boucher had one hit each.

Going 1-3 may not look good on paper, but the Ponies proved they could have a strong season. Laurel won a handful of games at the state tournament last season and the Locomotives return a lot of good talent to the diamond this year. That was a big win for the Ponies, and fans would have to go back quite a few years to find the last HHS win at the Great Falls Jamboree. Last year the Ponies were a young team with a lot of talented sophomores, but struggled to settle in and compete each weekend. This year they have already shown they could be taking their game to the next level, and coaches and players are hoping that continues.

“That is the first game we have won down there in five years,” Wirtzberger said. “That is a great job by our girls, and that shows us what our expectations are going to be, and we can say they are going to be a little bit higher expectations for this team this year.”

The junior varsity also played a home doubleheader against Shelby Friday. Havre suffered a 6-3 loss, but also grabbed a 10-7 win in the nonconference junior varsity action.

Friday and Saturday the Ponies will return to action on the road. The Ponies will spend two days in Belgrade, competing at the Belgrade Invitational.

Billings West 4, Havre 0

Havre 000 0x – 0 1 4

Billings West 170 2x – 10 9 0

WP – not available; LP – Rachel Majeres

Havre – Dani Wagner 0-2, Harlee Boucher 0-2, Paige Henderson 0-2, Rachel Majeres 1-1, Shaniah Carlson 0-1, Jordyn Warren 0-1, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 0-1, Sydne Huston 0-1, China Bohn 0-1

Billings West – no individual statistics available

Billings Senior 11, Havre 3

Havre 003 xx – 3 6 1

Billings West 91x xx – 11 12 0

WP – not available; LP – Tori Mazurkiewicz

Havre – Harlee Boucher 0-1, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 1-2, Paige Henderson 2-2, Rachel Majeres 0-1, Shaniah Carlson 1-2 RBI, Scout Boucher 1-1 RBI, Tori Mazurkiewicz 1-2, Sydne Huston 0-1, China Bohn 0-1

Billings West – no individual statistics available

Havre 5, Laurel 0

Havre 201 20 – 5 8 0

Laurel 000 0x 0 5 1

WP – Rachel Majeres; LP – not available

Havre – Dani Wagner 0-1, Harlee Boucher 2-3 RBI, Paige Henderson 3-3 2RBIs, Rachel Majeres 1-3, Scout Boucher 0-1, Jordyn Warren 0-2, Shaniah Carlson 2-3 RBI, Tori Mazurkiewicz 0-3, Morgan Mazurkiewicz 0-0

Laurel – individual statistics not available

Butte 17, Havre 1

Havre 001 0x – 1 8 1

Butte 574 xx – 17 20 1

WP – not available; LP – Dani Wagner

Havre – Dani Wagner 2-2, Harlee Boucher 1-2, Paige Henderson 2-2, Rachel Majeres 2-2 RBI, Scout Boucher 1-2, Jordyn Warren 0-2, Tori Mazurkiewicz 0-2, Sydne Huston 0-2, China Bohn 0-1.

Butte – individual statistics not available