Northstars ready to jam at home

The beginning of summer is marked by many different things for people. For the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club, it is the Havre Jamboree tournament. This weekend at Legion Field, the Northstars will host some of the best teams in the state. As they head into the first weekend of the summer, Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger is excited to host a strong slate of baseball.

"It should be a fun weekend," Wirtzberger said. "It's always good to host your own tournament. We got some good competition coming up and I know the boys are excited to play in front of the home crowd and to put on a good show for them."

The Northstars will host many great teams and games this weekend in Havre. The tournament will start Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. with a contest between the Gallatin Valley Outlaws and the Calgary Strive.

The Outlaws come into the tournament after winning the state title in Havre last August, so they should play some good baseball this weekend. Wirtzberger does not know much about the Strive, so he is interested to see how they perform to start the weekend.

The Northstars will then begin the weekend Friday at 6 p.m. against the Miles City Mavericks. The teams faced each other twice last summer, with Havre winning both contests by scores of 19-2 and 13-8. The Northstars will then play again at 8:30 p.m. with a contest against the Glendive Blue Devils. Havre also swept Glendive last season by scores of 6-3 and 12-2.

The Havre Jamboree will continue with another four games Saturday. The day will start at noon with a game between Miles City and Glendive. Miles City will then play Calgary at 2:30 p.m.

The tournament will continue Saturday at 5 p.m. with a contest between Gallatin Valley and Glendive. The Northstars will wrap up the day at 7:30 p.m. with a game against Gallatin Valley. The teams faced each other three times last year, with the Outlaws winning two of those matchups.

Sunday will end the tournament with three more games. At 9 a.m., Glendive will wrap up its weekend with a game against Calgary. At 11:30 a.m., Miles City and Gallatin Valley will face one another. The tournament will end at 2 p.m. with a game between Havre and Calgary.

The Northstars have a 7-9 record heading into the tournament, so they will be looking to improve their record. If they are going to do that, they will need their best players to play well this weekend.

Brody Nanini has played well for the Northstars on both sides of the plate. On offense, he leads the team with a .423 batting average and 12 RBIs. He also has a .508 on-base percentage and 17 runs scored. He has also started five games on the mound for Havre as he has a 3.643 ERA and 24 strikeouts to ten walks this season.

Eli Cloninger has also been a key hitter for the Northstars this season. At the plate, he has a .389 batting average, a .492 on-base percentage and nine RBIs. He also has been a solid base runner this year as he leads the team with 21 runs scored.

On the mound, Kale Reno is second on the team with 29.2 innings pitched so far this season. This year, he has recorded 27 strikeouts to 17 walks. Lane Kinsella has also gotten some time on the mound with 12.1 innings pitched and a 4.541 ERA.

Despite playing several games already this season, this will be the first tournament of the summer for the Northstars. With a long weekend coming up for the Northstars, Wirtzberger is excited to see how his team can compete in a format against some strong competition.

"It's always good to see how we can make it through the weekend," Wirtzberger said. "Usually we're getting everybody some really good playing time and some good experience. We're just trying to get the summer started off on the right foot."

The Havre Jamboree will begin at 3:30 p.m. on Friday at Legion Field with a game between the Gallatin Valley Outlaws and the Calgary Strive. The Havre Northstars will start their first game of the tournament Friday at 6 p.m. against the Miles City Mavericks.