Ponies get right back to work against Scotties

With three straight wins at home to open the season, the Havre High softball team looks to keep that streak going tonight when the Blue Ponies host Glasgow at Sixth Avenue Memorial Field. While Glasgow has a losing record on the year, HHS head coach Tony Vigliotti believes the Scotties will bring it, because they are coached by a familiar face.

"They always bring a competitive team to town," Vigliotti said. "Their coach over there, Ryan Hartwell, was in Havre for a while so he's a good softball guy, so they'll be coached well and be a good matchup for us."

Havre is 5-2-1 on the season and 1-0 in conference play. They defeated Browning in their home opener last week and then defeated Hardin and Glendive in their conference opener this past weekend.

The Ponies look to rely on their strong pitching again to lead them to victory. Vigliotti plans on having Avery Carlson start against Glasgow in her third start of the season. She is 1-1 as a starter and has recorded a 4.39 earned run average. In 13 innings pitched this season, she has struck out 23 batters while allowing 11 hits, eight earned runs and nine walks.

Carlson also looks to make an impact at the plate to help lead the team to victory. She leads the team with a .531 batting average and 17 hits. She has scored 14 runs and drove in seven runs this season. Another contributor to the Ponies' offense will be Quinn McDonald, who leads the team with 15 RBIs this season and is second on the team with a .517 batting average.

Glasgow comes into the matchup with a record of 3-4 but is coming off a 23-11 win over Northeast A school Sidney. At the Lewistown tournament earlier in the month, the Scotties played against Laurel and Park, two schools that Havre also played in the tournament. Glasgow lost to both Laurel, 10-0, and Park, 14-3. Havre lost to Laurel, 13-3, and tied with Park, 8-8.

On offense, the Scotties will rely on the likes of Ashlee Meland to lead them. She leads the team with a .609 batting average and .700 on-base percentage. She has also chipped in 14 runs and three RBIs. To bring home players, the Scotties will need Davyn Myrick to continue her strong season leading the team with 17 RBIs on a .550 batting average.

"They always have good hitters, so we'll have to pitch well and we've been doing that," Vigliotti said. "We're going to have to keep playing defense like we've been playing defense."

The Ponies will want to take advantage of Glasgow's pitching staff as either Meland, Brielle Partridge or Daley Aune will take the mound for the Scotties. In her three starts, Meland has a 15.077 ERA while only recording six strikeouts. In their two starts this season, Partridge has a 18.5 ERA and Aune has a 10.5 ERA.

The game against Glasgow is a non-conference game for the Ponies, which comes right before a pivotal matchup on the road at Lewistown. Lewistown is 8-2 and is already 4-0 in conference play to lead the Northeast A. Vigliotti hopes that his team will use their game against Glasgow to become a more well-rounded team that can compete with Lewistown.

"We'll just use it to try and keep getting better in everything that we're doing," Vigliotti said. "We've made the plays we've needed to make, so we just need to keep doing that and remember the mental side of the game and try to stay away from mental mistakes."

However, he does not want his team to look ahead to the important conference game and instead focus on the task at hand.

"Stay positive, stay present, stay pitch to pitch," Vigliotti said. "There's nothing we can do about Thursday yet so got to concentrate on Tuesday, and when we get to Thursday, we'll worry about Thursday."

Havre will play Glasgow at Sixth Avenue Memorial Field tonight at 5.