Havre bounces back to split with Lewistown

Being swept by a conference rival only a few days prior, only to face them once again can be a tough challenge for any team. It takes a lot of skill and versatility to work around an opponent that can get in your head so easily, but with the right kind of mindset and a strong game, things can turn around quite quickly.

That was the case for the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club, who faced off against Class A North District rivals, the Lewistown Redbirds, Monday night at Legion Field, where the series was split. Lewistown claimed the first game 11-1, while the Northstars stormed back to win game two 14-7, making their overall season record now 11-21, with the end of the regular season drawing closer.

Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger was happy to see his team bounce back after a tough first game against Lewistown.

"Obviously, game one was a tough one," Wirtzberger said. "I thought Julian Benson went out there and pitched pretty well, but sometimes Lewistown's bats get really hot and there's not much you can do. But, we made a few errors, too, so that didn't help and nothing we hit went in the hole. I was proud of the way they came back and dished out a game in that second game. Coming out in the bottom of the first and scoring five runs that sent a message that we were ready to go. We just kept on coming back."

Game one was a rocky one for the Northstars. After the first two innings failed to produce a run from either team, the Redbirds shot ahead, scoring runs from a triple and five singles to take the lead 7-0 after the third inning. The top of the fourth inning saw Lewistown add four more runs off of two doubles and a triple, with Eli Cloninger responded afterward when Caden Jenkins hit him in. From there, the game ended in the fifth inning due to the 10-run rule.

Then Havre turned it around in game two, starting off the bottom of the first inning with five runs, where Quinn Reno, Cloninger, Tyrel Kjersem, Jenkins and Ethan Carlson all finding the home plate to start off strong. Lewistown answered with four runs of their own in the second inning, the Northstars surged again in the third, with Jeremiah Benson, Tavish Mclean, Reno and Cloninger scoring four runs to lead 9-4 going into the fourth inning.

The Redbirds added one run to their score in the fourth, but Julian and Jeremiah Benson tacked on two more runs to Havre's score in the bottom of the fourth, with the game starting to run away in the Northstars' favor. Then in the sixth inning, Mclean, Reno and Kjersem would all make it home once again to go up 14-5, while the game ended with Lewistown putting up two more runs, giving Havre the victory to end the night off on a good note.

A lot of Northstars brought the power against the Redbirds, but Wirtzberger gave a shoutout to Kjersem for his performance both defensively and offensively Monday night.

"Tyrel Kjersem did a great job," Wirtzberger said. "Both games at the plate, he had great at-bats and I know he had a couple key hits in the second game. Obviously, he pitched a great game. He had one bad inning where he lost the zone and walked a couple guys, but other than that he was really, really good."

Kjersem had four hits in five at-bats Monday night against Lewistown in game two, while Reno had four hits at five at-bats in game two, as well. Defensively, Kjersem was hailed as the wining pitcher of game two.

And when asked about what the biggest takeaway was from Monday night's game against Lewistown, Wirtzberger kept it steady with what he has been hitting home all season.

"Improvement," Wirtzberger said. "I've been telling these guys all year it's all about improvement. Obviously, our record is not what we would like to be right now, but it's all just working up. Once we get to districts, everybody is zero-zero, so we got to make sure that we are the best team we can be come then. We just got to keep improving every single day."

Next up, the Northstars (11-21) head to Glasgow Wednesday for a 5 p.m. game against the Glasgow Reds, followed by senior night games against the Great Falls Lightning Thursday night.

Lewistown 11, Havre 1

Lewistown 00 7 4 0 XX – 11

Havre 000 1 0 XX – 1

WP – not reported.

LP – not reported.

Havre batting – not reported.

Havre 14, Lewistown 7

Lewistown 0 4 0 1 00 2 – 7

Havre 5 0 4 2 0 3 0 – 14

WP – Tyrel Kjersem

LP – not reported.

Havre batting – not reported.