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News you can use
Havre's Tavish McLean hits a ball during Tuesday night's American Legion game between the Northstars and the Great Falls Class AA Chargers at Legion Field. Havre lost a heartbreaker to the Chargers, 8-7.
Julian Benson makes a catch in left field during Tuesday night's game against the Great Falls Chargers at Legion Field.
Eli Cloninger works the plate during Tuesday night's game at legion Field.
Ethan Carlson mans first base during Tuesday night's game at legion Field.
Trenton Maloughney pitches during Tuesday night's game at legion Field.
After putting up a stellar showing by going 3-1 in last weekend's Lewistown Tournament, the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club was looking forward to a big matchup against another opponent from Great Falls, the Great Falls AA Chargers, with both teams looking for another win to add onto their season records.
Unfortunately for Havre, Great Falls came up to Legion Field Tuesday night and defeated the Northstars 8-7 in a close battle to the end, giving Havre a tough loss. Now, the Northstars have a 6-13 overall record for the 2020 season.
Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger gave his recap of the battle with the Chargers.
"We got started off on the right foot," Wirtzberger said. "Trenton Maloughney went out there and did a really nice job of throwing strikes and getting guys out. There was one bad inning, there we gave up six runs against some great competition in Great Falls. Brody Nanini did a really nice job there in the middle innings and Quinn Reno came in to try and shut it down, but it's tough locking down a good hitting team like them. I was proud of our effort, we made great plays on defense and we battled back on offense multiple times."
The Northstars opened the game strong. After a stalemate in the first inning, Havre pushed in the bottom of the second inning to take the lead after Tavish Mclean stole third base to score. Then in the third and fourth inning, the Northstars extended their lead, as Jeremiah Benson and Tyrel Kjersem were the next to score for Havre for a 3-0 lead after four complete innings.
But Great Falls rebounded, with four runners making it to home plate in the top of the fifth inning to take the lead 4-3, but the Northstars answered right away with runs by Reno and Eli Cloninger to snag the lead back 5-4 after the sixth inning.
But in the seventh and eight innings, the Chargers added two more scores, then Havre responded with two of their own, with Ethan Carlson hitting a well-placed ball in the bottom of the eight to put two runners home and lead once again 7-6.
That play by Carlson was big at the time for the Northstars and Wirtzberger is glad to see that things went right for Carlson after some struggles at the start.
"That play is just trying to preserver through some things," Wirtzberger said. "Ethan had a couple tough breaks there at the beginning of the game, so it was great to see him come through there in the end. These guys are starting to realize that the game changes at every single pitch and at-bat, so that was a huge play to get us the lead, but unfortunately we couldn't hold on to it."
Havre had the lead indeed, but then tragedy struck.
Havre had the plan to shut down Great Falls on defense and win the game right then and there, but the Chargers did not quit in the ninth inning, with two runners making it to home-plate after some well-placed hits into the field, giving them the lead 8-7 going into the bottom of the ninth, where the Northstars had to score two runs to win the game now. But, after loading the bases with some great hits, two fly-balls found the glove of a Great Falls player and a rough bunt went wrong, sealing the win for the Chargers in the fierce battle at Legion Field.
The bottom of the ninth was on the right track and Wirtzberger knew what ailed his team the most in that inning.
"We get a lead-off walk and then a couple of bunt plays that go our way and you get everything you want with bases loaded and no outs," Wirtzberger said. "We just couldn't get the runners in. I thought we swung at good pitches for the most part, but sometimes it doesn't go right and that's what I think happened tonight."
McLean had a big game for the Northstars going 3-for-4, while Maloughney suffered a tough loss on the hill.
Up next, the Northstars will head to Helena to compete in the Helena Tournament Thursday and Saturday, where four opponents await Havre for some seven-inning showdowns.
AA Chargers 8, Havre 7
Great Falls 0000 4 0 1 1 2 – 8 9 5
Havre 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 2 0 – 7 7 5
WP – Josh Banderol
LP – Trenton Maloughney
Havre batting – Eli Cloninger 1-5, Quinn Reno 1-5, Tyrel Kjersem 0-3, Ethan Carlson 1-4, Caden Jenkins 0-4, Tavish Mclean 3-5, Julian Benson 1-2, Carson Lunak 0-4, Drake Barreth 0-1, Jeremiah Benson 0-3.
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