Havre softball hosts conference foe Lewistown in home opener

Due to high winds on the Hi-Line, the Havre High softball team was unable to hold its home opener Tuesday against Lewistown. But with hopefully fair weather tonight, the Blue Ponies will face their conference foe Lewistown tonight at Sixth Avenue Memorial Field. While the Ponies will be getting on their home field later than they would have liked, HHS head coach Tony Vigliotti believes that extra time before the game could prove beneficial.

"We were able to practice every day this week so we got the work in that we needed to get in," Vigliotti said. "Lewistown is always fun to play. They're always well prepared and I think we're prepared."

The Ponies' home opener will be a rematch of the Northeast A Divisional title game last season at Sixth Avenue Memorial Field. The Golden Eagles won that game, 11-1, for the divisional crown. Just a few weeks prior to that game, the Ponies defeated the Eagles, 4-3, in a walkoff at home.

Early this spring, the Ponies are off to a 2-0 start. This past weekend, Havre swept conference foe Miles City by scores of 20-2 and 19-1. Avery Carlson and Molly Huse started and won both those games pitching for the Ponies and Lizzi Haney leads the team with eight runs batted in through two games.

The game will be the season opener for the Lewistown Eagles, who will be looking to build off their 19-7 record, their divisional title and their fourth-place finish at state last year. The Eagles lost several players from last year but they do return contributors such as Eliazar Southard who amassed four RBIs across three games against the Ponies. But Vigliotti knows the Eagles' greatest strength comes at the mound.

"They've always pitched well, so I expect them to throw strikes," Vigliotti said. "They're well coached, they do the fundamentals well and they usually don't beat themselves. We'll have to do what we like to do and that's put the ball in play, throw strikes and play defense."

The Ponies will get little rest this weekend as they will then head to Lewistown for a tournament this Friday and Saturday. The Ponies will play four games against tough teams such as Stillwater, Billings Central, Columbia Falls and Livingston.

"It'll be a good gauge for us. We're looking forward to the competition," Vigliotti said about the tournament. "But we're just going to concentrate on getting better every day and not really worry about who we're playing yet."

Havre begins the tournament Friday at noon with a contest against the Stillwater Renegades, who went 19-5 last year and finished third in the Class B/C State Tournament. The Ponies will then face the Billings Central Rams at 2 p.m. Friday. The Rams should be another tough foe as they qualified for the state tournament last season and defeated Havre, 13-5, last spring.

The Ponies will continue the tournament Saturday with a contest against the Columbia Falls Wildkats at 1:30 p.m. The Wildkats are another familiar opponent for the Ponies as they faced off twice last season. The Ponies won, 5-4, in an early season matchup, but the Wildkats won the second go around with a 14-4 win to knock Havre out of the Class A State Tournament. The Ponies will wrap up the tournament Saturday at 3:30 p.m. with a game against Livingston. Last season, Havre and Livingston played to an 8-8 tie in an early season tournament.

With the schedule changes throughout the week, the Ponies will now have to play five games across three days. However, Vigliotti believes that his team can handle the load early in the season.

"I don't think that'll be a problem for us. We've got three pitchers that we can use at the varsity level so we should be good," Vigliotti said.

The Ponies play Lewistown tonight at 5 p.m. at Sixth Avenue Memorial Field. The Ponies will then head to Lewistown for a tournament this Friday and Saturday.