Havre Invite signals final homestand for the Ponies

The Havre High softball team will have a couple of objectives in mind this Saturday when the Blue Ponies host the Havre Invitational. One will be getting back in the win column after two straight losses to Livingston. The other is celebrating the seniors who will be playing their final home games at the Sixth Avenue Memorial Field.

In all, the Ponies will be honoring five seniors from this class, including Lauren Kato, Janae Boles, Kinzee Peterson, Kaitlyn Anderson and Jera Verploegen. While head coach Tony Vigliotti has only been coaching the Ponies for the past two seasons, he said he still has greatly appreciated the efforts of this year's seniors.

"It has been a good group," Vigliotti said. "They have done everything that Dave (Peterson) and I have asked them to do. They have been leaders for us on the field and off the field. They are good leaders and they are good people. They have been fun to be around and hopefully, they have learned some things about softball and about life."

Havre will be celebrating its seniors but it will also be looking to gain some positive momentum over the next two weeks. Between Saturday and the Eastern A Divisional tournament in Lewistown May 18, the Ponies have six non-conference games left and closing out the regular season strong would be the ideal way to head into the postseason in search of another state tournament berth.

"We just have to be ourselves," Vigliotti said. "We hit and pitched well enough to win down in Livingston, they just made more plays than we did. We just have to do what we do and that's playing defense and put the ball in play. We have struggled to get some bunts down this year and that's been a little bit different. But we just need to throw strikes, play defense and put the ball in play."

The Ponies will open the Havre Invite Saturday morning against Class B opponent Cut Bank at 9:30. The two teams will meet at the Sixth Avenue Field, where all the games will be played. Havre will be starting either Lauren Kato or Sam Oliver. Kato comes in with a 3-3 overall record. Oliver is 1-2. Vigliotti has generally used both pitchers this season instead of having the same pitch in back-to-back games, so one should take the mound against Cut Bank and the other should get the ball vs Conrad at 5 p.m. in the final game of the day.

Offensively, the Ponies come into the weekend averaging just over seven runs a game and a key part of the lineup is Peterson, who leads Havre in home runs (8), batting average (.500), RBIs (26) and on-base percentage (.596). Setting the table for Peterson will be Boles at the top of the lineup along with Sydney Wilting. Wilting leads the team in runs scored with 18 and is followed closely by Boles who has 16. Oliver and Kato, who round out of the top five in the batting order, are also among the top five on the team in hits with 14 each.

Boles and Wilting will also help the key the defensive effort from the outfield. Oliver plays at shortstop when she doesn't pitch and when Kato isn't on the mound, she offers a steadying presence at third base. However, whether it's done with pitching, hitting or defense, Vigliotti doesn't really care, he just wants his team to generate some positive momentum with just two weeks to go in the regular season.

"It's really important for us to have some confidence going into divisionals," Vigliotti said. "It would be nice to play well this weekend and then play well down in Butte before we head into that divisional tournament."

Havre will play Cut Bank at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. The Ponies will then finish off the Havre Invitational by taking on Conrad. The first pitch will go out at approximately 5 p.m. All games will be played at the Sixth Avenue Memorial Field.

Havre Softball Invite

9:30 Havre vs Cut Bank

11:00 Great Falls Central vs Shelby

12:30 Glasgow vs Conrad

2:00 Cut Bank vs Great Falls Central

3:30 Shelby vs Glasgow

5:00 Havre vs Conrad