North Stars beat Mariners in a wild one

The Havre North Stars American Legion Baseball team has had an exciting few days. During that time, the North Stars have played a number of games, been part of an incredible comeback and saw baseball succumb once again, to mother nature.

The North Stars started the stretch of six games or what was supposed to be six games, last Thursday at Legion Field, when Havre overcame a 13-2 deficit to defeat Mission Valley B 26-16. The North Stars then, turned around Friday and were swept by the Lewistown Redbirds by the scores of 7-2 and 4-1 in a doubleheader at Legion.

Following those defeats, Havre made the trip to Lewistown Sunday for another Northern A District doubleheader. However, this time, the weather would not cooperate, as the games were rained about after just four innings of play.

"We tried to wait it out, but we ended up calling it," North Stars head coach Dick Fuzesy said. "So now we will be going back there on Sunday and we will be making up another doubleheader in Vauxhall Friday."

That means it will be another busy week for the North Stars, who were scheduled to play Mission Valley yesterday, but canceled due to everything that was going on with the schedule. Yet, when the two teams met last Thursday in Havre, there was an offensive explosion.

After spotting the Mariners an 11-run lead, the North Stars put together a furious comeback that was capped by Jake Sedahl and his inside-the-park grand slam in the bottom of the sixth inning, which gave Havre its first lead of the game at 15-14.

Yet, Havre couldn't close out Mission Valley, which added a run in the top of the seventh to push the game into extra innings. But, after holding Mission Valley scoreless in the top of the eighth, Havre erupted for 11 runs in the bottom half of the eighth.

Normally, the game would have ended there, but due to the fact that it had run so long, the coaches agreed to make it one, nine-inning game, as opposed to playing two seven-innings games. So the action continued, but in the top of the ninth, Havre allowed just one run and wrapped up the 26-16.

Brenden Danielson, who came on in relief for starting pitcher Brendan Garden got the win. Sedhal also held the Mariners scoreless in a key two-inning stretch. He also went 3-for-6 with six RBIs.

"Jake is always telling me that any good baseball player can pitch," Fuzesy said. "And since it was a non-conference game and I didn't want to use any of my pitchers with conference games coming up, I said 'You're right' and gave him a chance. I knew he could throw strikes and that's what he did.

"We started that game and things weren't going right and we were kind of getting embarrassed." he added. "But, I told them that they could turn it around and they did and there was a lot of our young guys, so it was like we were seeing the team we were going to have the next couple of years."

After the come-from-behind win over Mission Valley, Havre was back at Legion Friday for a district doubleheader against Lewistown. In the first game, the North Stars got off to a promising start after an RBI by Sedhal put Havre in front 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning

Yet, Lewistown added three runs in the top of the fifth inning and another in the top of the sixth to take a 4-1 lead. Havre, which managed just three hits in the game, was not able to overtime it and Lewistown hung on for the win.

Dylan Carpenter got the loss on the mound for Havre after allowing four runs on 11 hits. He had one walk and zero strikeouts. Outside of Sedahl, only Garden and Carpenter managed hits.

In the second game between the two teams, Lewistown grabbed a 7-1 lead, plating five runs in the top of the third inning and two more in the top of the fourth. Havre got a run in the third, but despite loading the bases in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, the North Stars got just one run in the bottom of the seventh, which led to the five-run loss.

Gavin Mosbrucker got the loss after allowing seven runs in four innings of work. Sedahl led the way for Havre offensively with two hits and an RBI. Danielson, Carpenter, Garden, Jeff Miller, Kennedy McKay, Trey Murphy and Ethan Roberts all pitched in with hits in the loss. Havre is now 13-26 on the season.

The North Stars will be back in action Wednesday, when they will host Scobey in their final home game of the season at Legion Field. First pitch will go out at 5 p.m. Havre's scheduled rematch with the Redbirds in Lewistown was rained out last Sunday.

Lewistown 4, Havre 1

Lewistown 000 031 0 - 4 11 1

Havre 100 000 0 - 1 3 2

Havre Batting - Brenden Danielson 0-3, Jerod Boles 0-3, Ethan Roberts 0-2, Dylan Carpenter 1-3, Trey Murphy 0-3, Kennedy McKay 0-2, Jeff Miller 0-3, Jake Sedahl 1-3, Bredan Garden 1-3.

Lewistown 7, Havre 2

Lewistown 005 200 0 - 7 10 2

Havre 001 000 1 - 2 9 1

Havre Batting - Brenden Danielson 1-3, Tony Antley 0-1, Dylan Carpenter 1-4, Jake Sedahl 2-3, Jeff Miller 1-4, Brendan Garden 1-4, Trey Murphy 1-2, Kennedy McKay 1-4, Ethan Roberts 1-2, Jerod Boles 0-2.