GOING TO STATE

GREAT FALLS - After coming back against the No. 4 Great Falls Lightning Wednesday evening, the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club was in high spirits at the Northern A District Tournament. Things were looking up for Havre Thursday, where the No. 3 Northstars put on quite the show at Centene Stadium in Great Falls.

First, Thursday started off with a shutout revenge win over the No. 2 Tri-County Cardinals 8-0 in the morning, which gave Havre a spot in the championship game, where the No. 1 Lewistown Redbirds fought with the Northstars down to the last pitch, but in the end, Lewistown got the win 7-6 after coming back.

Even so, Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger was proud of his team for finishing in second at Centene Stadium, which all started with the win over Tri-County in the morning.

"It all started with Julian Benson on the mound," Wirtzberger said. "Two-hit shutout on 75 pitches; biggest game of the year. Couldn't have asked for anything more. The defense played really well behind him. We made the plays we needed to make and only had one error, which was a tough play. We hit the ball when we needed to and that took a lot of pressure off the defense. Total complete game."

When it comes to the game against the Cardinals, the Northstars made sure that no errors were made. After an empty pair of innings to start, Havre kicked off the scoring for the game with two runs in the third inning, with a 2-0 lead early on. As the game progressed, the Northstars kept shutting down the Tri-County offense, while the Cardinals did in kind, but not for long.

When the seventh inning came around, Havre made sure to seal the win, sending six runners to home to skyrocket further into the lead, capping off an excellent rematch and revenge battle against a tough Tri-County team, keeping the Northstars alive in the tourney.

At the end of the game, Benson was hailed as the winning pitcher against the Cardinals, while leading the offense with a three hits at four at-bats at the plate to cap off an excellent game to make it to the championship.

As for the chipper, it may not have ended the way the Northstars wanted it to, but Wirtzberger knew that Lewistown would be a tough team to beat from the start.

"It started off really good," Wirtzberger said. "We got up 6-1 and had lots of energy. Then, Lewistown kind of settled in. They had a young pitcher on the mound who started to hit his spots and I left too many runners on pace. If you expect to beat Lewistown, you have to capitalize on runners not scoring."

And in the championship game, Havre started off quite well. Putting up three runs in the first inning, compared to the Redbirds' one run, to take the lead early on once again. Three more runs in the second inning drove the Northstars forward, with the game looking like it would end similarly to the previous bout. But, even though Havre had a 6-1 lead going into the third inning, Lewistown did not let up.

The Redbirds pulled closer in the third inning by sending three runners home, followed by two runs in the fifth inning to tie up the score, all the while keeping the Northstars from putting a single runner across home plate. Then, a score in the sixth inning gave Lewistown a clutch lead. That lead was cemented as the Redbirds defense held Havre to the final pitch to win the Northern A championship, handing their opponent second place in comeback fashion.

Ethan Carlson put up a perfect two hits at two at-bats and Tyrel Kjersem had two hits at three at-bats against the Redbirds.

After it all, Wirtzberger and the Northstars are making a postseason rally, which has elevated their mood going into the last leg of the season.

"We feel great," Wirtzberger said. "We've hit our stride and are starting to play our best baseball of the season. We're doing what we need to do. I think we feel great and I think they're prepared. We've worked really hard all season and we're putting things together at the right time. I think they feel pretty good and confident. The highlight for me, and the biggest compliment that you can get as a coach, is that your team played really hard. They really played their butts off and battled through adversity."

With the Northstars being the second-place team at the Northern A District Tournament, Havre will be heading to the Class A State Tournament at Ryan Sparks Field in Lewistown next Thursday to Saturday for a shot at the Class A crown. It has been since 2005, when Wirtzberger was a senior for the Northstars since Havre has been to state.

Once upon a time, Havre was already locked into the state tournament, as the host of the 2020 event. But the coronavirus pandemic changed things before the season even started, and the state tourney was moved, so instead, the Northstars had to earn their way at districts, which they certainly did over the last two days.

CHAMPIONSHIP

Lewistown 7, Havre 6

Lewistown 1 0 3 0 2 1 X – 7 10 2

Havre 3 3 00000 – 6 9 1

WP – Avery Crouse

LP – Carson Lunak

Havre batting – Quinn Reno 0-2, Eli Cloninger 2-4, Tyrel Kjersem 2-3, Caden Jenkins 0-4, Trenton Maloughney 1-4, Ethan Carlson 2-2, Julian Benson 0-3, Tavish Mclean 1-3, Theron Peterson 0-1.

LOSER-OUT

Havre 8, Tri-County 0

Havre 00 2 000 6 – 8 10 0

Tri-County 0000000 – 0 3 6

WP – Julian Benson

LP – Tony Daley

Havre batting – Quinn Reno 1-4, Eli Cloninger 2-4, Tyrel Kjersem 1-3, Caden Jenkins 0-2, Trenton Maloughney 1-4, Julian Benson 3-4, Carson Lunak 2-4, Tavish Mclean 0-3, Drake Berreth 0-4.