Baseball excitement comes to town with the Havre Jamboree

The Havre Northstars American Legion baseball team has some momentum on its side after a three-game winning streak to close out play last weekend. And starting Friday at Legion Field, the Northstars will look to continue that as they host the Havre Jamboree.

The annual jamboree, which will run through Sunday at Legion, will start with the Northstars taking on the Glasgow Reds Friday at 3 p.m. There will be a total of nine teams in attendance, including the Northstars and the Havre Comets. The other teams will be the Fort MacLeod Royals, Glasgow, the Calgary Redbirds, the Medicine Hat Knights, the Great Falls Outlaws, the Montana Regulators and a legion team from Malta that is in its first season of play.

In all, there will be 16 games played at the jamboree, with the Northstars and Comets each playing three times. After playing Friday afternoon, the Northstars will play Saturday night in back-to-back games against the Regulators and Calgary at 7 and 9. The Comets will play the Regulators Friday in what will be the state championship for the Montana Baseball League 16U. That game will be at 7 Friday night. The Comets will also play the Great Falls Outlaws Saturday at 11 a.m., and will close out the Havre Jamboree Sunday against Medicine Hat at 4 p.m.

"It will be good for us to get a chance to try some things out," Northstars head coach Mickey Williams said. "We are still trying to figure out where everyone fits in and what combinations will work the best."

Coming into the weekend, the Northstars are 10-9 overall and 5-3 in the Northern A District. But after the jamboree, Havre will only have a few chances to play nonleague games, meaning it is just about time for the stretch run.

"I think that we are going to have an exciting season," Williams said. "5-3 is a good spot for us to be in right now. After this weekend, it's pretty much all conference games except for a few. So we need to clean up some things, but the kids have really responded well to our coaching and they are starting to come along. It's all about the little things and I think they are starting to see that doing all the little things adds up. That's what you need to do to win."

One thing Williams wants to see cleaned up is errors. Through 19 games, the Northstars have committed 54 errors, which is just under three per game. In the one game Havre lost last weekend to Fort Mac-Leod, the Northstars had eight errors. In the three games they won, they had just two.

"We can't give away runs," Williams said. "We have been doing that too much. We have to make them earn it. But we really have seen a lot of improvement defensively."

Offensively, the Northstars have also been more committed to the small ball approach of Williams, which led to an outburst of runs last weekend, including a 10-0 win over Medicine Hat. Havre is averaging 7.6 runs per game and a big part of that is a lineup that features Jake Sedahl, Kennedy McKay, Ethan Roberts and Brenden Danielson. Sedahl is leading the team in batting average with a mark of .483, but Danielson also boasts an on-base percentage of .619.

Danielson is leading the team in runs scored with 24, but Sedahl is pacing the Northstars with a team-high 19 RBIs. He has also scored 13 runs and notched eight extra-base hits. Danielson is right behind him with seven and Tony Antley is also right there with six.

On the mound, Brendan Garden and Danielson have both been consistent as starters, winning multiple games each. However, McKay was outstanding in his one start and Roberts has also allowed zero runs in four innings of relief work this season.

The Northstars will play Friday and Saturday in the Havre Jamboree with the first game coming against Glasgow Friday at 3 p.m. The action will conclude Sunday with the Comets taking on Medicine Hat at 4 p.m.

Havre Jamboree Schedule

Friday

Havre Northstars vs Glasgow Reds 3 p.m.

Great Falls Outlaws vs Malta 5 p.m.

Havre Comets vs Montana Regulators 7 p.m.

Malta vs Fort MacLeod 9 p.m.

Saturday

Montana Regulators vs Fort MacLeod 9 a.m.

Havre Comets vs Great Falls Outlaws 11 a.m.

Malta vs Medicine Hat 1 p.m.

Glasgow vs Calgary 3 p.m.

Glasgow vs Medicine Hat 5 p.m.

Havre Northstars vs Montana Regulators 7 p.m.

Havre Northstars vs Calgary 9 p.m.

Sunday

Glasgow vs Fort MacLeod 8 a.m.

Fort MacLeod vs Calgary 10 a.m.

Calgary vs Montana Regulators 12 p.m.

Great Falls Outlaws vs Medicine Hat 2 p.m.

Havre Comets vs Medicine Hat 4 p.m.