Northstars look to keep pace on the road

Championship teams share of a lot of characteristics, but one that is just about universal is being able to win games on the road.

And if the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball team is going to make a run at the regular season championship in the Northern A District, winning on the road will be a requirement, especially as the team is in the midst of playing 10 of 12 games on the road.

Starting last weekend with road trips to Fort Macleod and Medicine Hat, the Northstars have some daunting trips ahead of them, starting with a doubleheader Tuesday at Tri-County. Havre will also travel to Vauxhall July 3 and Lewistown July 9. Before the Northstars close the season at Legion Field against Vauxhall in a doubleheader Jule 13, they will play 10 of 12 games in district play on the road, starting Tuesday at 1 at Tri-County.

“It's really difficult,” Northstars head coach Patch Wirtzberger said of winning on the road. “At home, everything is a little bit easier. We know that to go out there and get two wins we are going to have to play our best baseball for 14 innings and work hard on every pitch.”

Havre will head to Tri-County with a record of 16-11 overall, as well as an 8-6 mark in the Northern A District, which still has the Norhtstars in position for a top seed in the Northern A tournament. Notching two wins over Tri-County would go a long way in that endeavor and following three previous wins over the Cardinals, one in non-conference play, Havre feels like the favorite, yet their head coach isn’t so quick to agree.

“We are coming off of an up and down weekend, so I want to see some consistency from our kids,” Wirtzberger said. “When we play good team baseball we look really good, but when we go back to our bad habits we have a tendency to play some really ugly baseball. So we need to find a way to stay up for an entire day and put two games together. Tri-County will be improved. They have beaten everyone in the district except for us and Vauxhall so I know they are going to go out there and give us their best shot. This will be a big doubleheader for us.”

For the critical series, Wirtzberger will send out two of his most experienced pitchers to the mound in Kennedy McKay and Tony Antley. Antley has a team-high 14 appearances and in eight starts, he has a record of 4-1 to go along with an ERA of 7.09. He is also second on the team in strikeouts with 26. McKay, on the other hand, has made all five of his appearances as a starter and boasts a 2-1 record with a team-best ERA of 4.06 and a team-high 28 strikeouts.

By sending McKay and Antley back to the mound against the Cardinals, Wirtzberger hopes to replicate the success each starter had in their first matchup against Tri-County. Antley went five solid innings in a win over the Cardinals, earning the win after allowing just three runs on four hits. In the second game of the double dip, McKay was even better tossing a one-hitter, which earned him a complete-game victory. McKay gave up two runs but surrendered only one run in addition to striking out five.

At the plate, the Northstars have battled inconsistency all season long and the last week was a perfect example. Against Lewistown, Havre scored 11 in the first game and followed it up with zero. At Fort Macleod, the Northstars scored six and then 15 and in Medicine Hat, they tallied one run in the first game, before exploding for 13 in the second.

As a team, the batting average has been steadily rising in recent weeks, with it now up to .305, thanks in large part to Ethan Roberts, who is batting .474, and Quinn Reno, who is right behind him with an average of .452. What’s even more impessive about Reno is that he leads in the team in RBIs from the two spot with 27, to go along with a team-high seven doubles. He also ranks second in runs scored with 28, which is well behind Roberts, the team leader with 48.

Roberts, a senior, also has a team-high three triples. On top of that, the speedster also has drawn 23 walks, which has helped him rack up 30 stolen bases. For the season he has been caught stealing just once. Antley has been another key contributor at the plate, batting .356 to go along with 22 runs scored and 22 RBIs, joining Reno as the only Norhtstars player with more than 20 runs and RBIs.

Havre (16-11, 8-6) will travel to Tri-County to take on the Cardinals for two games Tuesday with the first pitch in the doubleheader set for 1 p.m.