Northstars drop state tourney debut

The Class A State Tournament kicked off Thursday morning, as eight teams from across Montana journeyed to Ryan Sparks Field in Lewistown for a shot at winning the 2020 state title. The best-of-the-best from the North, South, East and West were ready to collide, one of those teams being the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club.

The Northstars entered the state tourney as the No. 2 seed of the North, with their first opponent being the East’s No. 1, the Billings Blue Jays. The 1 p.m. showdown at Ryan Sparks Field was a harsh loss for Havre to start the tournament, as the Blue Jays bested the Northstars 9-2, pushing them to the loser’s bracket.

Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger understood the rough go his team had against Billings.

“It was kind of a tough day,” Wirtzberger said. “Tyrel Kjersem could never just find a rhythm up there on the mound and we had a lot of runners on base that we just couldn’t capitalize on, so all in all not a great day. But we’re in position a lot of the time, we just need to cash in when we get runners in scoring position.”

Billings wasted no time to start off the game, as the Blue Jays opened the game with five runs in the first inning to take an early 5-0 lead, followed by another run added in the second inning to keep trucking forward. Things kept getting worse for the Northstars, as while the Billings defense was keeping them from scoring, the Blue Jays were able to add three more runs to their score, leading 9-0 after the third inning. Despite that, Havre could not find any more footing Thursday afternoon, falling to Billings in the end.

But there were some Northstars who did some great things. Trenton Maloughney led the offense with a perfect two hits at two at-bats, followed by Ethan Carlson with two hits at three at-bats for Havre.

Now, it is do or die time for the No. 2 Havre Northstars, as if they lost to the No. 2 Bitteroot Bucs this morning at 10 a.m. at Ryan Sparks Field in Lewistown, then it will be a tough journey home. But if the Northstars pushed through, they will be continuing the fight for a state chipper.

Billings 9, Havre 2

Billings 5 1 3 000 X – 9 5 0

Havre 00000 2 0 – 2 7 2

WP – G. Thompson

LP – Tyrel Kjersem

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