North Stars take one, lose second in extra innings

There was some late-game drama in both games of Wednesday night's conference doubleheader, but the Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team managed to escape with at least one win at home.

The North Stars welcomed in the Great Falls Electrics for two conference games at Legion Field in Havre, and Havre found itself leading both games late, but couldn't fend off the surging Electrics in both. The North Stars won game one 9-8 but lost the nightcap 11-6 in extra innings.

After starting the season 0-2 last weekend, the North Stars are now 1-3 overall and 1-1 in the district standings.

"Our usual philosophy is to sweep at home and split on the road." Havre head coach Danny Wirtzberger said, "which I think this team has a good chance at doing this year. But I can honestly say this is more than we hoped for, though it is tough to see the light at the end of the tunnel for a sweep at home and not get it. That was a little disappointing, but overall it was a very positive day.

"We played really good baseball for six innings in both games." Wirtzberger added. "I told the guys that this team hasn't been used to playing with a lead for the last three or four years, and we are going to have to get better at that. Hopefully, that will be something we do often this year, is play with a lead."

In the first game of the evening, the North Stars nearly suffered a heartbreaking loss at the hands of costly walks.

The North Stars found themselves leading 4-3 through five innings and even broke things wide open in the bottom of the sixth with five more runs off of five hits and one Great Falls error. With one out, Tyrell Pierce hit a single, followed by a Ryne Antley walk. Two batters later, and with two outs, Spencer Ross hit an RBI double, followed by another run scoring when Dylan Carpenter reached base on an error. With a 6-3 lead, the North Stars forced a pitching change, but Chance Pitkanen and Gavin Gunderson drove in two more runs on back-to-back RBI singles to stretch the lead to 8-3. Travis Roth also hit an RBI single for the North Stars before the Electrics turned a groundout to end the inning and stop the bleeding.

But a comfortable lead didn't turn into a comfortable win as the Electrics took full advantage of the top of the seventh inning. Pierce took the mound in relief for starter, Carpenter, but took some time to find his spots. Pierce walked the first two batters, then gave up a single to load the bases. Great Falls then scored on a wild pitch then an RBI single. The Electrics were patient at the plate, hardly swinging, and scored two more runs on two more wild pitches to close the Havre lead to 9-7. Pierce earned a strikeout, but followed suit by walking three more batters to load the bases and gave up another run on a wild pitch.

With the lead now at 9-8, Pierce forced a groundout to end the game, and giving the North Stars the win.

Pierce had a solid outing at the plate, going 3-for-4. Ross went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, while Pitkanen went 1-for-4 with two RBIs as well. David Denny, Carpenter, Gunderson, Dan Miller, and Roth had one hit each, with Carpenter and Gunderson each grabbing one RBI. Chris Vukasin didn't record a hit, but also finished with one RBI.

Late game drama followed the North Stars into game two as well, as a comfortable lead turned into a loss in extra innings this time around.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Antley gave the home crowd something to cheer about when he came to the plate with the bases loaded and with two outs. The ballgame was tied up at 2-2, but Antley crushed the ball into deep center field, scoring all three base runners with an impressive standup triple. Two hits and a Great Falls error helped Havre take a 5-2 lead. Havre also stretched the lead to 6-2 in the sixth, this time with Pitkanen driving in Denny with an RBI double. Denny got on base with a double just two at bats prior to Pitkanen's at bat.

But in the seventh inning the North Stars ran into trouble on the mound yet again.

Pierce got the starting nod, and pitched very well through six innings, allowing just the two runs. But in the seventh the Electrics rallied for four runs on three hits, one error, one walk, and one pass ball. In the eighth inning Gunderson pitched in relief, but also struggled in his one-third inning of work. Gunderson hit a batter, waked two, and gave up two singles before exiting. Great Falls led 8-6 and got to face Vukasin for the final two-thirds inning. Vukasin got one strikeout, but also gave up three runs on one hit and one walk. The Electrics took an 11-6 lead, and the North Stars failed to score in the bottom of the eighth.

The Havre pitching staff gave up a combined 11 runs on 11 hits, and seven walks. 10 runs were earned runs, while they also struck out a combined eight Electrics.

In game one the pitching staff gave up just six hits, but walked 11 and struck out just 3.

"Tyrell (Pierce) was good for us for eight innings worth of pitching, through the first and second game." Wirtzberger said. "He just ran out of steam, and that is just a part of being early."

Roth led the North Star at bats with a 4-for-5 nightcap. Ross and Pitkanen went 2-for-4 with Pitkanen grabbing two RBIs. Denny and Antley both with 2-for-5, with Antley grabbing three RBIs, while Gunderson had one hit.

Heading into the two games, the North Stars were hoping for the bats to catch fire. The defense and pitching had been strong in the opening weekend, but the bats were not. But Wednesday night that changed, as the North Stars totaled six extra base hits amongst the 24 total hits over the two games. Ross, Carpenter, Denny, Antly and Pitkanena all had doubles, while Antley had the base-clearing triple in game two.

"All the way through the lineup, I was impressed." Wirtzberger said. "But a guy that stands out in my mind is Pitkanen. He played out of his mind at the plate tonight. He doesn't usually play first base, but he is really going to get a look because he played great for us today."

Havre is back on the field at Legion Field in Havre Sunday for another doubleheader. The North Stars will host the Glasgow Reds, with game one starting at 1 p.m.

Havre North Stars 9, Great Falls Electrics 8

GF 003 000 5 – 8 6 3

Havre 100 125 x – 9 11 1

WP – Dylan Carpenter; LP – Staisberg.

GF – Bleskin 0-3, Fisher 1-3 RBI, Bonilla 1-3 2RBIs, Reiman 2-4 RBI, Burstein 1-2 2RBIs, Krattinger 0-3, Wilke 1-3, Brennah 0-3, Roberts 0-1 RBI.

Havre – Chris Vukasin 0-5 RBI, Tyrell Pierce 2-4, Ryne Antley 0-2, David Denny 1-4, Spencer Ross 2-3 2 RBIs, Dylan Carpenter 1-4 RBI, Chance Pitkanen 1-4 2RBIs, Gavin Gunderson 1-2 RBI, Dan Miller 1-2, Travis Roth 1-2 RBI.

2B – Bonilla, Reiman, Ross, Carpenter.

Great Falls Electrics 11, Havre North Stars 6 (8 innings)

Great Falls 002 000 45 - 11 11 1

Havre 011 301 00 - 6 13 1

Roberts, Brennah (4) and na; Pierce, Gunderson (8), Vukasin (8) and na. WP: Brennah; LP: Gunderson.

Great Falls: Bleskin 1-4, Fisher 2-5 RBI, Bonilla 1-3, Reiman 2-4 4 RBI, Burstein 2-5 3 RBI, Wilke 1-4, Mitchell 1-4 RBI, Martinko 1-2.

Havre: Travis Roth 4-5, Gavin Gunderson 1-4, Tyrell Pierce 0-4, David Denny 2-5, Ryne Antley 2-5 3 RBI, Spencer Ross 2-4, Chance Pitkanen 2-4 2 RBI, Dylan Carpenter 0-3, Dan Miller 0-1, Mike Loftus 0-1, Chris Vukasin 0-1.

2B: Burstein, Denny, Antley. 3B: Antley.