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The Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club finally got its season going with a pair of games against the Billings Expos A team last weekend. After opening the summer with a split, the Northstars get their season rolling with four games this weekend at Legion Field against the Billings Expos AA team.
Their opening games taught the Northstars what they need to work on, so Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger believes his team will be prepared for the challenge ahead this weekend.
"It'll be a good test for guys. It was good to get that first doubleheader out of the way because we can see what we need to work on," Wirtzberger said. "The boys have done a really good job here at practice the last couple of days taking that stuff to heart."
The Northstars are 1-1 early in the season after splitting against the Expos A team last weekend. The Northstars lost the opening game, 7-6, before ending the day with a 14-4 win. The Expos AA team should be more experienced and talented, so the Northstars will have to be ready for the four-game slate this weekend.
"The Billings Expos AA team is going to be a really good team," Wirtzberger said. "(They've got) a lot of depth, a lot of good hitters and it should be a great challenge for us."
Many Northstars will be looking to keep things rolling this weekend. Brody Nanini picked up his first win of the season pitching last weekend as he pitched five innings where he recorded four strikeouts, three walks and a 2.800 ERA.
At the plate, Kale VanCampen will look to keep up his strong start. In the first two games, he leads the Northstars with a .600 batting average, a .750 on-base percentage and three RBIs. Nanini, Eli Cloninger and Lane Kinsella have also been solid at the plate with a .500 batting average in the first two games of the season.
With it being early in the season, there is still room for improvement for the Northstars. In their first game, they committed six errors as a team. But in the second game of their doubleheader this past Sunday, they improved and only committed one error. As the Northstars continue with the season, Wirtzberger expects them to keep minimizing their defensive mistakes.
"Early in the season, physical errors are going to happen. We're obviously working on that stuff every day in practice so that's the stuff I would expect to get better and better as the season goes on," Wirtzberger said. "This is an experienced group and they know what to expect with themselves and with each other so that stuff will get better."
With four games this weekend, all within a 24-hour span, some coaches might be concerned with the workload early in the season. But Wirtzberger expects his team to handle it well.
"We've got a lot of depth, especially on the pitcher's mound," Wirtzberger said. "I'm not too worried about filling in those innings and these guys are ready."
With it still being early in the season, Wirtzberger does not expect perfection from his players. But he does hope to see his players learn and grow from their mistakes, which he believes will help them become better down the line.
"I'd like to see them battle back from adversity," Wirtzberger said. "It's really tough to be too hard on yourself early in the season when you make those physical errors, so it's how we respond to those errors in those moments that's going to tell us a lot about our team."
The Havre Northstars begin a doubleheader against the Billings Expos AA team Saturday at 3 p.m. at Legion Field. The Northstars and Expos AA will then begin another doubleheader at Legion Field Sunday at 10 a.m.
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