Talented North Stars start a new season

As spring slowly creeps toward summer along the Hi-Line, baseball is upon us, which means it’s time for the Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team to take the field for the first time this season.

After a rebuilding year a season ago in which the North Stars failed to qualify for the Legion A state tournament, Havre brings back an experienced team, and under the direction of first-year head coach Dick Fuzesy, the team is hoping for a turnaround in 2015.

“It’s going to depend a lot on young guys,” Fuzesy said. “We have some good kids back from last season. We have seven starters and we have some good pitching. We are just going to need some of our young guys to step up and fill in where we need them.”

Fuzesy, who had been an assistant coach for the North Stars for the last three seasons under former head coach Danny Wirtzberger, will lead his team onto the field for the first time Sunday, when Havre will play a doubleheader against Glasgow. The first game will be at 2 p.m., with the second tentatively set for 4 p.m. Both games will played at Legion Field.

“Glasgow has a good team,” Fuzesy said. “They have a group of kids that has stuck together, but it’s a non-conference game and our first of the year, so we are going to be looking at more of the little things. We want them to do their job and make sure they are picking up our signs, those types of communication things. You are going to have errors and going to not get hits sometimes, we just want to see them doing the right things and taking the right approach.”

One thing that Fuzesy and the North Stars are blessed with is a number of talented, experienced pitchers returning to the staff this season. It starts with Tyrell Pierce, who is the ace and the team’s best pitcher a season ago. But, Dylan Carpenter and Jeff Miller also return and others such as Ryne Antley, Jerod Boles and Brenden Danielson will also be in the mix.

“Pitching will be one of our strengths,” Fuzesy said. “We have Tyrell Pierce and Dylan Carpenter at the top of rotation. But Ryne Antley is trying to work his way into the rotation and hopefully we will have a young guy that can step up and give us another pitcher, too”

While the North Stars have experience on the mound, they also return plenty of experience at the plate, including the team’s top batter from a season ago in Travis Roth, who hit .402 in 41 games last season to lead Havre in batting average. Roth also finished second in on-base percentage but was the leader in slugging percentage, RBIs and runs scored.

In addition to Roth, who plays second base, the offense will get a boost from third-baseman Gavin Gunderson, who hit .364 in 34 games last season and catcher Jake Sedhal, who finished the season with a .346 average as well as a team-high eight doubles.

Miller, who will play at shortstop when he’s not on mound, hit .281 and Antley, who was an all-district center fielder a season ago, posted a .330 average a season ago. Carpenter hit .255 last season as a right fielder and Pierce, who is a utility infielder when not pitching, finished last season hitting .244.

“We don’t have a lot of guys who hit for power, so we might have to play some small ball,” Fuzesy said. “We have guys that can hit for a good average and get on base. We also have some speed, so we want to take advantage of that.”

Fuzesy also feels good about his defense. With Roth, Miller, Gunderson and Pierce has some versatile defenders in the infield to go along with Sedhal, who is solid behind the plate. In the outfield, Antley is the key with a strong arm and great range to track down fly balls. Carpenter also returns in left field, while the right field spot is still being contested.

“All four of my infielders can play anywhere in the infield, so you have some nice versatility there,” Fuzesy said. “And then we have Antley in the outfield and he really can cover a lot of ground out there. We just need to find a right fielder to replace Spencer Ross, but besides that we have a lot of experience back.”

Other players who will be competing for time on the field this season include Trey Murphy, Tanner Hentschel, Nic Tanner, TJ Lovenguth, Cole Keller, Trey Hanson, Kyle Gooch and Boles.

If the North Stars are going to have their first winning season in a few years and get back to the state tournament for the first time in almost a decade, the team will need some of its new talent to develop, which will not be easy considering the team’s difficult schedule.

The North Stars will also have to tackle the competitive Northern A district, which features traditional powerhouses Fort MacLeod and Vauxhall as well as Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Tri-County and Great Falls.

And while the North Stars want to play some exciting baseball this summer, they will need to rely on pitching, defense and timely hitting to win consistently and have a shot at ending their state tournament drought.

“We want it to be exciting for the fans,” Fuzesy said. “And the high scoring games are fun, I like those, but if we need to play low-scoring games to win we will. We will take what we can get.”

The first pitch Sunday between Havre and Glasgow on Sunday will go out at 2 p.m.