Havre High fastpitch team closes out the regular season in Butte

The Havre High softball team is just one week away from playing in the tournament they have been looking forward to all season: The Central A divisionals. Yet, they still have one more weekend of regular season play left and they will spend it in the Mining City for the Laverne Combo tournament.

In terms of the conference standings, the tournament, which starts today and runs through Saturday in Butte, will mean nothing. The Ponies (8-8, 5-3) have already wrapped up the second seed in the Central A thanks to its 5-3 record in league play. But, with divisionals looming, this weekend will serve as a chance for HHS to fine tune some things, especially since the Blue Ponies will get to play four games starting today against Hamilton at 12:45.

Havre will also play Dillon today at 4 p.m. Then, Saturday, HHS will take on Billings Central at 9 a.m., before closing out the tournament against Polson at 2:15 p.m. In all, the tournament features 26 teams, with most Class A teams in attendance along with a few from the Class B ranks.

“It’s going to be an awesome weekend for us,” HHS head coach Bob Evans Sr. said. “Billings Central is one of the top teams in the east and Hamilton was the top team in the southwest, so we are going to see some quality competition. And it will really give us a good idea of where we want to be going into divisionals and if we make it to state.

“It’s also going to give us a chance to evaluate some of our younger players and our team as a whole,” He added. “We are going to bring three sophomores down there with us and see if we think they will be able to help us at down at divisionals.”

Of course if the Ponies are going to be successful this weekend, they will need strong performances from starting pitchers Dani Wagner and Paige Henderson. Wagner, who is coming off her best start of the year in a 3-2 loss to Conrad, will look to continue that momentum as she continues to be the ace of the staff.

Henderson has also put together some solid innings for the Ponies lately but is even more valuable in the field, where she is one of the best shortstops in the state of Montana. And when it comes to the overall improvement of the team, one thing Evans is looking for will be better play from his defense, after errors cost HHS two potential wins against Lewistown and Conrad last Saturday.

“We need to clean up some of the mistakes on defense,” Evans said. “Both Paige and Dani pitched well for us, but we still gave up runs that we shouldn’t have and that cost us a couple of ball games, so we need to take care of that stuff and make sure that we are playing seven innings.”

While the defense has been inconsistent at times lately, the hitting as well as the pitching has been solid. And just like on the mound, Henderson and Wagner are a driving force behind Havre’s success at the plate.

Morgan Mazurkiewicz has also given a spark to the Pony offense at the top of the order and along with Shania Carlson, has provided base runners for the tremendous power trio of Wagner, Jacey McDonald and Henderson in the heart of the lineup. The three have combined for 16 home runs this season, with eight coming from Henderson, six from Wagner and two from McDonald. And thanks in large part to their ability to drive in runs, the offense has been clicking and has scored seven runs or more in seven of eight games.

“We really have been hitting the ball well and our pitching has been pretty good, too,” Evans said. “We just need to clean up a few things and start to think a little bit more about the game. We need to think on defense before the play about what we are going to do with the ball. Not that we aren’t going to avoid making errors altogether, we just need to make sure they don’t pile on top of each other.”

The Ponies will play four games in the Laverne Combo tournament in Butte this weekend before heading to Belgrade for the start of the Central A divisionals on May 15.