North Stars make most of home stand

Before four conference games at Legion Field this past weekend, Dick Fuzesy, the head coach of the Havre North Stars American Legion Baseball team, said his goal was to win three or four games against Medicine Hat and Fort Macleod. And thanks to some outstanding offense and timely defense, the North Stars met their coach’s expectations by posting a 3-1 record in four key Northern A District games.

The North Stars opened the weekend Saturday by sweeping Fort Macleod by the scores of 10-0 and 14-1. Then, after a dramatic 8-7 win in the first game against Medicine Hat Sunday, Havre had its third win but failed to get two sweeps in a row after Medicine Hat bested the North Stars 10-3 in the second game.

"Winning three of four games wasn't bad at all," Fuzesy said. "I thought we played well. We scored 24 runs in two games against Fort Macleod. And then we played well in the first game against Medicine Hat and I thought we had a good chance to win the second one, we just didn't play as well."

In the first of back-to-back doubleheaders Saturday, the North Stars took on Fort Macleod and in the first game, Havre used a stellar pitching effort from Jeff Miller and a strong offensive showing to crush the Royals 10-0.

After holding Fort Macleod scoreless in the top of the first inning, the North Stars went to work quickly in the bottom half of the inning as singles by Travis Roth and Dylan Carpenter helped load the bases. Tyrell Pierce then singled to score two runs. Two batters later, Kyle Gooch hit a two-run single of his own and Havre led 4-0.

The North Stars added to their lead in both the bottom of the second and third innings as Ryne Antley drove in a run with an RBI single in the second and Jake Sedahl was hit by a pitch to plate a run in the third.

Havre then added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 8-0 heading to the fifth. Miller worked his way out of a bases loaded jam in the top half of the inning before Gooch ended the game with a double that scored two runs in the bottom half, giving the North Stars a 10-0 win thanks to the mercy rule.

Gooch had a stellar day at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a game-high four RBIs. Pierce was also productive going 2-for-3 with two RBIs, while Carpenter and Jerod Boles also pitched in with two hits apiece. Miller earned the win after tossing five shutout innings. He allowed seven hits, walked two batters and struck out five.

In the second game of the double dip Saturday, the North Stars once again used a hot start to roll to an easy victory. However, this time the Royals managed to grab an early lead with a run in the top of the first but, unfortunately for them, it would be their only lead on the night and it didn’t last beyond the bottom of the first inning.

Sedahl got the action started in the first when he ripped an RBI double to tie the game at 1-1. Pierce then continued his strong day at the plate, grounding out but bringing Carpenter across in the process. Havre added two more runs on errors and grabbed a 4-1 edge.

The North Stars then held the Royals scoreless in the top of the second and in the bottom half of the inning, the flood gates opened. Thanks to a combination of hits and errors, Havre plated seven runs and blew the game wide open with an 11-1 lead. Havre added three runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 14-1, while Boles shut down the Royals to end the game after five innings.

Boles was solid in five innings pitched to earn the win and over the course of the game, he allowed just the one run on eight hits, while striking out two. Sedahl led the North Stars at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Both Antley and Pierce contributed with two hits and two RBIs. Carpenter also had two hits and an RBI and Miller also added a hit and drove in two runs in the win.

After sweeping the Royals, the North Stars turned their attention to Medicine Hat.

In the first game against Medicine Hat, Havre dug itself a big hole, allowing six runs on six hits in the top of the third inning to fall behind 6-0. Yet, the North Stars answered with three runs in the third, thanks to RBI singles by Roth and Sedahl. Medicine Hat added a run in the top of the fourth to make the score 7-3, but in the bottom of the fourth, Havre scored when Sedahl and Antley each got hits to score runs and suddenly the lead was trimmed down to 7-5.

Then, in the bottom of the fifth and still trailing 7-5, the North Stars scored three runs, including a run scored by Boles after a passed ball to take an 8-7 lead. Pierce, who was solid despite giving up six runs in the third, held the opposition in check while Havre rallied. Medicine Hat had a chance to score with runners on first-and-third and one out in the top of the seventh, but after catching a fly ball, Antley was able to throw out a runner attempting to score on a sacrifice and the game ended on the double play.

"That was a great play by Ryne," Fuzesy said. "He made a great play and a great throw. I thought that was give us some momentum that would carry through to the next game. And I don't know if we got complacement after that win or not, but we didn't play the same in that second game."

Sedahl was solid again at the plate with two hits and two RBIs. Antley added a hit and an RBI, while Boles, had two hits, got on base three times and scored a pair of runs.

However, in the second game, Medicine Hat was determined to earn a split and made sure it did so after building an early 8-0 after scoring multiple runs in their first three innings at bat. The Havre offense was never to string much together offensively and Medicine Hat held on for the seven-run victory.

Miller had a solid day at the dish despite the loss, going 3-for-4. Boles also added a couple of hits and an RBI. Gunderson also pitched in with two hits. Carpenter was hit with the loss after allowing 10 runs over the course of seven innings.

The North Stars (8-10-1, 5-3) will be back in action on Tuesday when they hit the road to face the Tri-County Cardinals in non-conference action.

Havre 10, Fort Macleod 0

Fort Macleod 000 00 – 0 7 6

Havre 411 22 – 10 12 0

Havre – Travis Roth 1-3, Dylan Carpenter 2-3, Jake Sedahl 1-3, Ryne Antley 1-2, Tyrell Pierce 2-3, TJ Lovenguth 0-1, Trey Murphy 0-3, Cole Keller 0-0, Kyle Gooch 2-4, Tanner Hentschel 1-3, Jerod Boles 2-3.

Havre 14, Fort Macleod 1

Fort Macleod 100 00 – 1 8 7

Havre 470 3x – 14 14 1

Havre – Trey Murphy 1-2, Jerod Boles 0-1, Jake Sedahl 3-4, Travis Roth 2-3, Dylan Carpenter 1-2, Ryne Antley 2-4, Tyrell Pierce 2-4, Jeff Miller 1-4, Cole Keller 0-2, Tanner Hentschel 1-2, TJ Lovenguth 1-1, Nic Tanner 0-0, Kyle Gooch 0-2.

Havre 8, Medicine Hat 7

Medicine Hat 006 010 0 - 7

Havre 003 023 x - 8

Havre - Gavin Gunderson 2-4, Travis Roth 2-4, Jake Sedahl 1-4, Ryne Antley 1-4, Dylan Carpenter 2-4, Jeff Miller 1-3, TJ Lovenguth 1-3, Jerod Boles 2-3, Tannner Hentschel 0-2.

Medicine Hat 10, Havre 3

Medicine Hat 231 202 0 - 10

Havre 000 100 2 - 3

Havre - Gavin Gunderson 2-4, Travis Roth 1-4, Jake Sedahl 0-4, Ryne Antley 0-3, Tyrell Pierce 0-3, Jeff Miller 3-4, Trey Murphy 0-2, TJ Lovenguth 0-2, Boles 2-3, Brenden Danielsonon 0-2.