Ponies make last stand at home

The Havre High softball team has been on a roll lately and the Blue Ponies will look to continue that this week with a pair of critical conference games and a matchup against a high-powered team in the Havre Invitational.

Saturday, the Ponies will be at home to do battle with the Lewistown Eagles at 9:30 a.m., before taking on Conrad-Choteau at 2:30 p.m. Both games will be held at the Sixth Avenue Memorial Field as part of the 2015 Havre Invitational.

And the Ponies will come into Saturday's tournament riding high after they scored a thrilling 11-9 win over Lewistown Thursday afternoon in Lewistown. With the victory, HHS improved to 5-2 in the Central A and 8-6 overall. The Ponies can clinch the second seed in the Central A divisional tournament by sweeping the Eagles, and they'll get that chance Saturday morning.

"That would be huge for us if we could sweep Lewistown," HHS head coach Bob Evans Sr. said. "We haven't swept teams back-to-back like that since one of my last years coaching the first time so that would be really important for our confidence and knowing that we can beat the other teams in our conference.

"Our girls are really excited to go down there to Lewistown and play," he added. "There is no love lost between our girls and Lewistown. So they have been practicing really hard and they are looking forward to it."

Of course if the Ponies are going to have success, they will need to get big performances from Dani Wagner and Paige Henderson on the mound, at the plate and in the field. Wagner is the team's top pitcher and will start tonight's game, while she and Henderson will share the hurling duties Saturday.

"Dani started against Lewistown (today)," Evans said. "And then we will just kind of see how things go for Saturday and then we will determine who starts the first game, but both Dani and Paige will pitch Saturday. And the biggest thing in terms of our pitching is that we just need to cut down on our walks. We are just putting too many runners on base. So if we can do a better job of not walking batters, we will be fine."

Yet, Havre depends on Henderson and Wagner to do more than just pitch, as they also spearhead an offense that has enjoyed a resurgence over the past couple of weeks. Led by Henderson, who is batting over .500 with eight home runs and Wagner, who is also hitting close to .500 with five homers, HHS has scored at least seven runs in five straight games and 10 or more in their last three.

In addition to Wagner, Jacey McDonald has also emerged as an offensive threat and hit a pair of home runs this past weekend against Livingston. Wagner, McDonald and Henderson make up the heart of the order for Havre, but the top of the lineup, which features Shania Carlson in the leadoff spot and Scout Boucher in the two spot, has contributed by getting on base and into scoring position.

"Paige, Dani and Jacey have really been hitting the ball well," Evans said. "That's been really great to see but we want to get everyone else going, too. You never know when someone will have an off day, so we need everyone to be ready to get hits for us."

After battling Lewistown on Saturday morning, Havre will play Conrad-Choteau in what will be the final home game of the season. It will also be a chance for HHS to honor the five seniors, who are Henderson, Carlson, Morgan Mazurkiewicz, Jordyn Warren and Harlee Boucher.

"They have been really great because they have been with the program ever since they were freshmen," Evans said. "We had seven that had stuck together before we lost Rachel Majeres and Tori Mazurkiewicz to injury. But they stuck with it for four years, which made them better, our team better and Havre High softball better."

However getting a win in the final home game of the season will certainly be easier said than done as Conrad-Choteau has been dominating the competition in Class B thanks all season long thanks to ace pitcher Tristin Achenbach, who has been a strikeout machine.

"It's going to be really tough on us Saturday," Evans said. "That Achenbach girl is one of the best pitchers in the state and it's hard to beat a team that has a pitcher that routinely strikes out 15-20 batters. But, we will have to try and keep their runs down and get hits and runs where we can. But it will be really good test for us, especially with divisionals coming up and state if we make it that far."

The Havre Invitational will be held at both the Sixth Avenue Memorial Field, where varsity games will be played, while junior varsity games will be played at the Hospital Park. Havre plays Lewistown at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and Conrad-Choteau at 2:30 p.mre plays Lewistown at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and Conrad-Choteau at 2:30 p.m.

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

Havre Invite Schedule

Sixth Avenue Field

9:30 a.m. Havre vs Lewistown

11:15 a.m. Havre JV vs Lewistown JV

12:45 p.m. Lewistown vs Cut Bank

2:30 p.m. Havre vs Conrad

4:15 p.m. Cut Bank vs Glasgow

Hospital Park

12:30 p.m. Glasgow JV vs Conrad JV

2:30 p.m. Lewistown JV vs Havre JV