North Stars enter final week

Before the Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team sets it sights on getting to the 2015 Montana Class A state baseball tournament, it must first take care of business in the Northern A district. And taking care of business in the district means defeating the Vauxhall Spurs.

The North Stars, who will pay a visit to Vauxhall Friday to close out the regular season, are in the midst of a three-team battle for first place that includes not only Vauxhall, but Lethbridge as well. That's why Friday's doubleheader, which begins at 1 p.m., between the Spurs and North Stars carries such significance.

The North Stars are 20-18-1 overall and currently sit at 14-8 in district play, which puts them in first place according to win percentage. However, Vauxhall is 13-7 with four games to go and leads Havre by a game in the loss column. Lethbridge, which is 13-9, is also alive and will go head-to-head with the Spurs in a doubleheader of their own to close the regular season Saturday after Havre and Vauxhall go at it Friday.

What it means for Havre is that despite a heartbreaking 9-7 loss to the Great Falls Chargers at Legion Field last Saturday, the North Stars still control their own destiny in the race for the top spot in the district standings and the first-round bye in the district tournament that comes with it. And in order for the North Stars to achieve this, they need a sweep of the Spurs.

A sweep of Vauxhall would clinch the best record in the regular season for the North Stars and would give them the bye for the district tournament. Unfortunately, because Havre was swept by the Spurs on its home field earlier this season, a sweep on the road is the only guarantee for the North Stars to finish first. The only other possibility of Havre finishing first is if it splits with Vauxhall and then Vauxhall is swept by Lethbridge. That would create a three-way tie at the top of the standings at 15-9.

"Looking back that loss to Great Falls didn't really end up hurting us," North Star head coach Dick Fuzesy said. "Now we have a chance to still finish first in the district and get that first-round bye. We have had some missed opportunities, we lost some games that we should have won, but we still have a chance and that's all you can really ask for."

Needing to win two games against the Spurs, Fuzesy will likely turn to his top pitchers on the final day of the regular season. Dylan Carpenter, who has been Havre's ace all season long, will get the ball for one of the games with Tyrell Pierce likely to get the start in the other.

Carpenter, who is 7-3 on the season with a 4.24 earned run average is coming off a poor relief outing against Great Falls last Saturday in which he was unable to hold a 7-2 lead and was hit with the loss. Yet, outside of the anomaly, Carpenter has been the team's most consistent pitcher and the North Stars will need his best effort on the mound if they are going to upend the Spurs.

If Pierce, who is 1-5 on the season with a 4.55 ERA does not get the start for Havre, other candidates include Jeff Miller, who is 6-1 with a 7.02 ERA and Jerod boles, who is 6-1 with a 3.17 ERA.

Yet, as much as the North Stars need a solid outing from their pitchers against the Spurs, the biggest key for Havre is going to be getting production from its offense. In order to score runs, Havre will rely heavily on the bats at the top of the order such as Gavin Gunderson, Travis Roth, Jake Sedahl and Ryne Antley.

Gunderson, who is the North Stars leadoff hitter has a batting average of .321 and an on-base percentage of .500. Roth, who is second in the order is batting .358 to go along 11 doubles and 28 runs batted in. In the third spot is Sedahl, who leads Havre with a .453 average and 34 RBIs. And in the cleanup spot in Antley, who hits .407 with 33 RBIs.

Other contributors for the North Stars include Brenden Danielson, Cole Keller, Kyle Gooch, Nic Tanner, Tanner Hentschel, TJ Lovenguth and Trey Murphy.

"All season we have been talking about getting to state and winning the district," Fuzesy said. "So this will give us a chance to go out there and do it. It's not the end of the world if we don't get that top spot and there isn't much difference between the two and three seed, but it would be huge for us if we could end up with that top spot."

In preparation for their game against Vauxhall Friday, the North Stars finished out their non-conference schedule Tuesday night on the road against the Great Falls Outlaws. The two teams went all out for nine innings and even that wasn't enough to decide a victor. Finally, the Outlaws found a way to tack on the winning run in the bottom of the 10th and ended up with the 4-3 victory.

The North Stars were supposed to take a trip to Missoula today for another non-conference matchup, but the game was canceled. Havre will now close out its 2015 regular season Friday in Vauxhall. First pitch will be thrown out at 1 p.m.