Havre Northstars fall to Redbirds in season opener

The Havre Northstars American Legion baseball team took the field for the first time in Lewistown Sunday, facing Northern A District rival Lewistown in a non-conference matchup

And in a scheduled nine-inning game in Lewistown Sunday afternoon, the Northstars dropped their season opener 16-6. The Redbirds were spurned onto victory in large part due to a nine-run third inning.

“It was kind of up and down,” Northstars head coach Patch Wirtzberger said. “We had one bad inning that kind of took us down. But we responded well.”

Things couldn’t have started any better for Havre offensively, as the Northstars plated three runs in the top of the first inning. A double by Tony Antley scored two runs and an RBI single from Hunter Lovenguth gave the Northstars a 3-0 advantage. Lewistown scored runs in the bottom of the first and second innings, but Antley singled and eventually scored on a passed ball, giving Havre a 4-2 lead after the top of the third.

Yet, that’s when the floodgates opened for Lewistown, which scored nine runs in the third to grab an 11-4 advantage. Ethan Roberts helped the Northstars add two more runs in the fourth inning, doubling in a run before stealing home later in the inning to trim the Lewistown lead to 11-6.

But the Redbirds, who finished the game with 15 hits, added a run in the seventh and four more runs in the bottom of the eight, which put them in front 16-6 and ended the game due to the 10-run rule.

The Northstars used a number of different pitchers in the loss but Bridger Staples will get the loss after allowing 10 runs on eight hits. Antley, who was 3-of-4 at the plate with a pair of RBI, also tossed two innings and gave up three runs, while also walking three batters. Austin Delarosa was also on the mound for two innings and struck out four batters while giving up one earned run.

Antley led all Havre batters with three hits, however, the Northstars finished with eight total in the defeat. The others who managed hits were Delarosa, Roberts, Eli Cloninger, Hunter Lovenguth and Tyrel Kjersem. Roberts, Cloninger and Kjersem added one RBI apiece in the loss. Antley also scored twice in addition to driving in two runs. Roberts, Reno, Delarosa and Staples also scored runs for Havre in the 10-run loss.

Lewistown 16, Havre 6

Havre 301 200 00 x 6 8 2

Lewistown 119 000 14x - 16 15 5

WP: Ben Kolar

LP: Bridger Staples

Havre Batting - Ethan Roberts 1-3, Quinn Reno 0-4, Austin Delarosa 1-4, Tony Antey 3-4, Eli Cloninger 1-4, Hunter Lovenguth 1-2, Trenton Maloughney 0-1, Tyrel Kjersem 1-4, Bridger Staples 0-2, Carson Lunak 0-2, Caden Jenkins 0-2., Caleb Allestad 0-1.