Valley Furniture claims state men's fastpitch title

Valley Furniture of Havre came into the 2019 Men's Fastpitch state tournament as the defending champions. However, after a loss in the semifinals, winning a second straight title seemed like it would take an incredible effort.

But in the blistering heat at the Sixth Avenue Memorial Field Sunday, Valley Furniture gave exactly that in the final three games Sunday afternoon and in the end, the team from Havre swept all three, including two wins over Desperado Pine from Missoula, by the scores of 14-6 and 11-3 in order to claim a second consecutive state title.

After losing to Desperado Pine Sunday morning, a team that had already won two other prestigious softball tournaments in Montana this summer, Valley Furniture found another gear. The team bounced back and knocked off the Silver Dollar, another team from Missoula, in order to reach the championship round.

Due to the earlier defeat, though, Valley Furniture was going to need to beat Desperado Pine twice in order to claim the championship. In the first game, Valley Furniture caught fire at the plate and scored 14 runs in a five-inning 14-6 victory. That triumph set up a winner-take-all game for the championship.

Last year, Valley Furniture used some extra-inning heroics from Daine Solomon to best Desperado Pine in the championship game and this time around, Solomon and some other former Havre Northstars played a pivotal role in the team's game-two win.

With the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Ricky Brown and Solomon notched back-to-back hits, which eventually put them both in scoring position after Brown advanced to third on Solomon's single. Brown later scored on a passed ball to make the score 4-3. Solomon was then brought home by Kyle Miller, which extended the lead to two and sparked a four-run inning that pushed Valley's advantage to 7-3.

After Andy Smith shut down the Desperados in the sixth inning, Valley Furniture scored four more runs in the bottom of the sixth to win the game 11-3. Smith was the winning pitcher in both games of the championship series. Other notable members of the team were Scotty Leeds, John Shennum, Justin Jensen and Ryne Antley.

The Gallery Lounge, the team from Havre that featured local pitching legend Gary Jo Evans and Northstars head coach Patch Wirtzberger, was also knocked out by Valley Furniture in its run to the title Sunday morning. The six-team tournament featured 13 games over the span of two days.