Top-seeded North Stars ready to go

It’s been a long time since the Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team has made it to the Montana State A baseball tournament. In fact, for a proud program such as the North Stars, it’s been too long.

Yet, if the North Stars have anything to say about it, and after their best regular season in years, the decade long state tournament drought could very well end this weekend with a top-two finish at the Northern A district tournament in Lethbridge.

And getting back to state is by no means a pipe dream, at this point it’s anticipated. That’s because after winning six of eight games to close the regular season, the North Stars earned the top seed in the tournament and the enormous advantage of a first-round bye that comes with it. The seven-team, double elimination tournament starts Thursday and will continue through Sunday.

Thanks to a split in the final district doubleheader against Vauxhall, Havre finished tied for the top spot in the final district standings alongside Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. But, thanks to a tiebreaker, Havre got the top-seed and a golden opportunity to get back to state.

“We got the news when we were on our way back from Vauxhall that we were going to be the top seed and that was pretty exciting,” North Stars head coach Dick Fuzesy said. “It’s a huge deal for us. I already thought that we had the most pitching depth in the district and now we have even more of an advantage. I think most teams have at least one good pitcher and they are going to have to use that pitcher right away, while we can save ours.”

Thanks to their opening-round bye, the North Stars (21-19-1 overall, 15-9 district) will not begin play in the district tournament until Friday when they will take on the winner of Vauxhall, which finished 13-11 in conference play and Fort MacLeod, which was 9-13. The Spurs and Royals will face off Thursday at noon, with the victor advancing to take on Havre Friday at 3 p.m.

Yet, even though Havre enters the tournament as the top seed and with a pitching advantage, the North Stars will still need to do what has got them to this point and a big part of that has been their pitching.

The North Stars possess a solid amount of depth as Fuzesy alluded to and heading to districts he has four starting-caliber pitchers he can turn to in Dylan Carpenter, Tyrell Pierce, Jerod Boles and Jeff Miler. Carpenter, who will get the ball Friday, was Havre’s most reliable hurler and finished the season with an 8-3 record. He also notched four saves in four opportunities and also posted a solid earned-run average of 4.01.

After Carpenter, comes Pierce, who will likely start the second game for the North Stars. Pierce was solid in 2015 and even though he posted a record of 1-6, he was still solid with an ERA of 5.04. The third starter will be Boles, who has come on strong in recent weeks for Havre on the bump and ended the season 4-0 with a team-best 3.17 ERA. And while Fuzesy said Miller will likely be needed at first-base as much as possible due to his defensive prowess, if another pitcher is needed he could be called upon. Branden Danielson, Ryne Antley and Gavin Gunderson have all pitched for Havre and could be used in relief.

“With that bye things are going to work out really well for our pitching,” Fuzesy said. “My biggest concern is getting to Sunday and getting to the state tournament. But we will get to use our top two guys in those first two games and if we win those, we are there. Our third guy will probably be Boles. He has been pitching really well lately. Jeff might also see the mound but he’s been so good at first base, we don’t want to pitch him unless we have to. But, he always does a good job, he has such good record, he throws a lot of strikes and for some reason the guys just seem to make a lot of plays behind him.”

Havre may rely heavily on pitching and defense but the North Stars wouldn’t have finished atop the district standings without their high-powered offense. As a team, Havre ended up with a batting average of .333 and no one hit more proficiently than Jake Sedahl, who led the team by hitting .444. Sedahl, who is also the team’s catcher, led the team in runs batted in with 35 and extra base hits with 13.

Antley, who had another All-District caliber season in centerfield, was great at the plate too with a .395 average to go along with nine extra-base hits and 33 RBIs. Sedahl and Antley both drove in runs at an impressive rate this season for Havre but they couldn’t have done so without the tremendous productivity of top-of-the-order hitters Gunderson and Travis Roth.

Gunderson hit a solid .314 in the leadoff spot, but while his average isn’t noteworthy, his on-base percentage was, leading the team by reaching base safely at a team-high .491 clip. He was also tops on the team with a total of 39 runs. Roth, who doubles as a standout defensive shortstop, also put up great numbers, finishing with a .357 average in addition to 34 runs. He also notched 28 RBIs and a team-high 11 doubles.

Miller, Boles, T.J. Lovenguth, Trey Murphy, Danielson, Cole Keller, Nic Tanner, Tanner Hentschel and Kyle Gooch will also make the trip and contribute in a multitude of ways.

“The guys are really excited,” Fuzesy said. “And after getting the top seed the talk is that now we really need to finish it off and make it to state and not let this great season we have had go to waste. I think that baseball is really making a comeback in Havre and getting to state will only help with that. You can tell already that people are excited and if we get there that will be a great reward for our guys.”

While Havre rests Thursday, the other six teams will all be in action. The other opening round matchups outside of Vauxhall and Fort MacLeod include third-seeded Lethbridge (15-9) taking on sixth-seeded Tri-County (8-14) Thursday at 7 p.m., as well as second-seeded Medicine Hat (15-9) going head-to-head with the seventh-seeded Great Falls Chargers (7-17).

The championship of the true double-elimination tournament, which also features nine-inning games instead of seven, will be held Sunday at 2 p.m.