Havre Northstars swept at home by Lewistown Redbirds

Coming off a tournament championship at the Harold Gjerde Memorial last weekend, the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club was looking to carry over that momentum into a doubleheader against the Lewistown Redbirds at Legion Field Tuesday night. But instead, the Redbirds quieted the Northstars' bats as Lewistown won both games by scores of 8-5 and 4-3.

"Obviously a pretty disappointing result," Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger said. "I feel like we played good baseball at times. We just need to find a way to be a little more consistent at the plate and we can win games like that."

The Redbirds got it started early in the first game. After a Havre error to start the game, Trajan Sparks hit a double to center field to drive in the runner for the lead. After reaching third base, Sparks scored thanks to a sacrifice fly from Luke Clinton to push the lead to 2-0.

Lewistown got rolling again in the top of the third. After Nolan Fry hit a triple to start the inning, Xander Wright hit a double to center field to drive in the runner. Later in the inning, Clinton hit an RBI single to left field to add onto the lead.

The Redbirds continued to roll as they continued to build their lead in the top of the fourth. With two men on base, Fry hit a double to left field to clear the bases and push the lead to 6-0. Fry then scored from third thanks to a sacrifice fly from Sparks. Clinton capped off the inning with an RBI double to give Lewistown an 8-0 lead.

"They just came out swinging the bat and didn't miss good pitches over the plate," Wirtzberger said about the Lewistown offense. "They were just ready to go from the get go."

In the bottom of the fifth, the Northstars finally got their offense going. With a runner on third, Jevin Jenkins hit a single to left field to drive in the run to get Havre on the scoreboard. After another single, Theron Peterson cleared the bases with a triple to right field. Peterson then scored himself on a groundout. Back-to-back doubles from the Northstars added another run to cut their deficit to 8-5.

"I think our guys were aggressive with good pitches in that inning," Wirtzberger said. "We can't be passive at the plate. We can't let good pitches go by. We just got to be aggressive from that start and they did that in that inning. We just weren't able to do it consistently."

The Northstars were able to shut out the Redbirds the rest of the way to keep themselves in the game. But the Northstars were unable to get on a roll again as they could not score themselves the rest of the game.

Peterson led Havre at the plate as he went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. Kale Reno earned the loss as he pitched the first four innings where he allowed six earned runs and 10 hits while recording a pair of strikeouts. Jenkins pitched the last three innings where he only allowed two hits and a walk.

Just like the first game, Lewistown took an early lead in the second game of the night. With two runners on base to start the top of the second, a sacrifice fly from Brody Jenness brought home a runner to give Lewistown the lead. Fry then hit an RBI single to center field to give Lewistown a 2-0 lead.

In the top of the third, Travis McAlpin hit an RBI single to right field to push the lead to 3-0. But Havre responded in the bottom of the third. After working his way to third base, Kale VanCampen scored thanks to a sacrifice fly from Eli Cloninger.

The Northstars kept the momentum going in the bottom of the fourth. After Jenkins hit a triple to start the inning, Peterson hit a single to left field to drive in the run. Later in the inning, a Lewistown error allowed Conner McKay to score and tie the game.

But the Redbirds took back momentum in the top of the fifth. After reaching third base, Jenness scored on a wild pitch to give Lewistown a 4-3 lead. The Redbirds then held the Northstars scoreless the rest of the game to secure the win. Jenkins was the only Northstar with multiple hits in the game.

The losses dropped Havre to 17-16, so the Northstars will look to stay above .500 as they will compete in the Harry Griffith Memorial Tournament in Miles City this weekend. Throughout this weekend, the Northstars will play many teams they are unfamiliar with.

The Northstars began the tournament today with a game against Riverton, a team from Wyoming. Then Friday at 10:30 a.m., Havre will play another team from Wyoming in Sheridan. The Northstars will then play another solid team in Dickinson from North Dakota Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

On Saturday at 8:30 p.m., the Northstars will face the Belgrade Bandits. These teams faced off last weekend with Belgrade winning, 3-2, on a walk-off. The Northstars will then wrap up the weekend with a seeded game Sunday. If the Northstars want to be competing in the tournament's championship game Sunday, their bats will need to do better than they did against Lewistown.

"Hopefully we can push through and win a few games, but we need to find a little bit more consistency at the plate," Wirtzberger said. "I like where we're at on defense. Our pitching has obviously been really good. I expect it to stay that way. If we can start to hit the ball consistently, we're going to be a tough team to beat."

The Northstars began the Harry Griffith Memorial Tournament in Miles City today with a game against Riverton.

Lewistown 8, Havre 5

LEW 2 0 2 4 0 0 0 - 8 12 2

HAV 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 - 5 9 1

WP - Brody Jenness

LP - Kale Reno

Havre Batting - Eli Cloninger 1-4, Drake Berreth 0-2, Brody Nanini 1-4, Jevin Jenkins 1-3, Trenton Maloughney 2-4, Theron Peterson 2-4, TerekShipp 0-4, Kale VanCampen 1-2, Colter Solomon 0-1, Kale Reno 1-2.

Lewistown 4, Havre 3

LEW 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 - 4 8 3

HAV 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 - 3 7 0

WP - Trajan Sparks

LP - Trenton Maloughney

Havre Batting - Eli Cloninger 1-3, Drake Berreth 0-3, Brody Nanini 0-4, Jevin Jenkins 2-4, Theron Peterson 1-4, Conner McKay 1-1, Kale Reno 1-2, Kale VanCampen 1-2, Ezra Pyle 0-2.