Northstar bats explode to sweep Tri County Cardinals

After an impressive 15-game winning streak through June and July, the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club came back to Earth with a loss to the Lewistown Redbirds in the Bitterroot Bucs Invite championship game Sunday. After that loss, Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger and the Northstars were looking to start a new winning streak in a doubleheader against the Tri County Cardinals in Conrad Tuesday. While their offense got off to a slow start, their bats woke up to defeat the Cardinals, 14-3, in both games for the sweep.

“We responded in the correct way,” Wirtzberger said. “Took us a minute to get going offensively there in the first game but luckily Kale Reno and our defense was there to pick us up and keep us in the game until we could finally get the bats going.”

Both offenses came out of the gate slow as neither team scored in the first two innings. The Northstars broke the scoreless tie in the top of the third inning when Caden Jenkins scored off of a Cardinal error. Tri County responded in the bottom of the third with a score of their own to tie the game 1-1.

Havre retook the lead in the top of the second thanks to an RBI single from Tavish McLean. The Northstars took complete control of the game in the top of the sixth where they scored eight runs. After two straight singles to start the inning, Carson Lunak scored on a Cardinal error. The Northstars then had a stretch of four straight hits to drive in five more runs. Lunak returned to the plate to end the inning with an RBI single to make Havre’s lead 10-1.

The Northstars offense continued to roll in the top of the seventh with four more runs to extend their lead to 14-1. Tri County tried to make the final score more respectable with a couple of runs in the bottom of the seventh but failed to make any meaningful headway on the scoreboard. After only scoring two runs in their loss Sunday, such a dominant offensive performance was a welcome sight.

“Just staying dedicated to what they’re trying to do in there and knowing what kind of pitches that they’re looking for. Did a really good job of hitting,” said Wirtzberger on how the offense got rolling again.

Unlike their first game where they were slow out of the gate, Havre took control early in their second game of the night as they scored 10 runs in the top of the first. After they got the bases loaded with no outs, the Cardinal pitcher hit Ethan Carlson with a pitch to drive a runner home for the lead. Lunak followed that up with a single to get another runner home to make the score 2-0. The Tri County pitcher then walked two straight Northstars to drive in another pair of runs. Reno then cleared the bases with a triple to center field to make Havre’s lead 7-0 before the Cardinals recorded the first out of the game.

Havre scored another three runs throughout the rest of the game that eventually allowed them to end it after five innings. With such an early lead, many Northstars got a chance to swing the bat, including their younger players.

“Good experience for our younger kids who got in the game and got some at-bats,” Wirtzberger said. “Our older guys did a good job of staying focused and trying to work on getting better and that’s what this team has done all year long.”

The sweep improved the Northstars to 29-11 on the season and 7-1 in conference play. Havre is also 17-1 in their last 18 games. Despite the dominant performance in both games, Wirtzberger hopes that the Northstars can get their offense going earlier to keep pressure off their defense. If his offense does come out slow again, he still has confidence in his pitching staff with only one week left in the regular season.

“Our pitching has been really solid from start to finish all year long,” Wirtzberger said. “That is something that we can take away and hopefully really rely on in the postseason.

The Havre Northstars will next play in a doubleheader on the road against the Lewistown Redbirds Saturday.

Havre 14, Tri County 3

HAV 0 0 1 1 0 8 4 - 14 15 2

TRI 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 - 3 3 5

WP - Kale Reno

LP - K Doheny

Havre Batting - Caden Jenkins 3-4, Eli Cloninger 2-5, Brody Nanini 0-3, Drake Berreth 2-2, Ethan Carlson 1-3, Trenton Maloughney 0-4, Carson Lunak 3-5, Theron Peterson 2-4, Tavish McLean 1-5, Kale VanCampen 1-3.

Havre 14, Tri County 3

HAV 10 0 1 3 0 X X - 14 11 0

TRI 0 0 0 0 3 X X - 3 7 3

WP - Brody Nanini

LP - L Carter

Havre Batting - Caden Jenkins 0-2, Eli Cloninger 2-3, Jayce Jensen 0-2, Trenton Maloughney 2-2, Jevin Jenkins 1-1, Ethan Carlson 0-1, Lane Kinsella 1-2, Carson Lunak 2-3, Conner McKay 1-1, Theron Peterson 0-3, Kale Reno 1-4, Drake Berreth 1-2.