Undefeated Northstars host Bitteroot Bucs this weekend

The Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club is off to an undefeated start after series sweeps over the Billings Expos and Great Falls Chargers to open the season. The next opponent trying to get in Havre's way will be the Bitterroot Bucs when they play a pair of games at Legion Field on Saturday.

While the Northstars played them last year, Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger is not sure how they matchup with the Bucs.

"Really tough to say. I know that they didn't lose a lot of guys off their team that was at state last year," Wirtzberger said. "I would like to think we matchup really well but it just depends on which team shows up that day."

Wirtzbgerer believes they will need to be led by their biggest strength this season, their pitching staff. Carson Lunak has pitched the most innings this season for the Northstars. He has started two games where he has struck out nine batters and has a 2.1 earned run average. Havre may also turn to Brody Nanini who has struck out eight batters while only allowing one earned run and no walks in his one start this season. Whoever pitches for the Northstars this weekend, Wirtzberger believes they just need to stick to what they know to continue their strong play.

"Just keep on doing what they've been doing," Wirtzberger said. "They need to get ahead early in the counts so that they can use their offspeed pitches to their advantage and they just need to keep the defense involved and keep on trusting that those guys will make the plays behind them."

While Havre's pitching has been strong this season, Wirtzberger believes that his team needs to improve their defense. He hopes to use this week in practice to make sure the team makes less errors this weekend.

"Really going to be focusing on just getting back to basics when fielding the baseball," Wirtzberger said. "That will really help just to get back to the very basic fundamentals of how to field a ground ball."

The Northstars will need their offense to produce some runs to help out their pitching. They may turn to Nanini to get some runs on the board as he leads the team with seven RBIs this season. He will need some batters to get on base first, something that Eli Cloninger does well with his team-leading .632 on base percentage. There is also Drake Barreth who leads the team with a .417 batting average.

"They just need to focus and strike out less and put the ball in play and put the pressure on the defense," Wirtzberger said.

As the Northstars progress into the season, Wirtzberger hopes that they become a more balanced team. While he has been able to rely on strong pitching, he wants a more consistent offense that will help lead their team to victory if their pitching falters.

"We need to be able to, if the pitchers have an off day, really come with it offensively and pick it up," Wirtzberger said. "That's just the name of the game and great teams do that and I hope that we can do that."

The Northstars and Bucs will play Saturday night at Legion Field.