Northstar mistakes lead to walk off for Lewistown Redbirds

After an exciting win on Thursday night to open the North A District Tournament at Legion Field, the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club made it to Sunday. However, they will have to play an elimination game on Sunday morning after the Northstars lost, 5-4, to the Lewistown Redbirds on Saturday night.

The Northstars had their struggles on both sides of the plate. The offense was unable to get on a roll as they only produced two hits against the Redbirds. The defense also committed six errors, including several in the seventh inning that put runners on base. These errors came back to bite them as Trajan Sparks hit a single to center to drive in the game winning run.

"Too many mistakes in the field and two hits obviously isn't going to get it done," Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger said. "We got to be a whole lot better if we're going to hope to win tomorrow."

Early on Saturday night, it looked like the Northstars had control. After loading the bases to start the top of the third inning, Ezra Pyle scored on a passed ball to give Havre the lead. Kale Vancampen then scored on another passed ball to add onto the lead. Another passed ball allowed Eli Cloninger to give Havre the 3-0 lead.

Brody Nanini started the game at pitcher and he started strong. Along with the rest of the Havre defense, Nanini held the Redbirds scoreless through the first three innings. Despite shortcomings in other parts of the game, Wirtzberger liked how the defense came out to start the game.

"I thought Brody pitched really well and I thought we played defense well for six innings," Wirtzberger said. "We just made a couple key mistakes in the seventh and that's what it comes down to."

The Redbirds broke through on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. After Xander Wright opened the inning with a single, Luke Clinton brought him home with a single of his own. Travis McAlpin then hit a single to left to drive in Clinton for another run to cut their deficit to 3-2.

The Redbirds and Northstars then went back and forth. In the bottom of the fifth, Justin Maier scored on a sacrifice fly from Nolan Fry to tie the game. The Northstars responded in the top of the sixth with Nanini scoring on a passed ball to give Havre a 4-3 lead. Then in the bottom of the sixth, McAlpin drove in a run with a single to tie the game again.

After the Northstars went scoreless in the top of the seventh, the Redbirds got the chance to walk it off. A pair of Havre errors in the beginning of the inning allowed runners to reach base. A single from Wright then loaded the bases with only one out. Sparks ended the game with a single to center to walk it off.

While Saturday night ended on a sour note, there were some positives for Havre over the weekend. On Friday night, the Northstars handled business with a 6-3 win over the Vauxhall Spurs. The Northstars had an early scoring opportunity in top of the first inning as they loaded the bases. A walk then brought in Cloninger for a run to take the lead. Nanini then scored on a balk to give Havre a 2-0 lead.

The Havre defense also had a strong start to the game as they held Vauxhall scoreless in the first three innings. In the bottom of the fourth, the Spurs finally scored as Dallas Cummins scored on a groundout.

But the Northstars held onto control with another pair of runs in the top of the fifth. After working his way to third base, Theron Peterson scored on a wild pitch. Cloninger then drove in another run with a single to center to give Havre a 4-1 lead.

In the top of the sixth, Pyle drove in another pair of runs with a single to left. The Spurs scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to 6-3, but the Northstars held them scoreless after that to win the game.

After an 11-10 win over the Calgary Strive on Thursday night to open the tournament, Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger believes Trenton Maloughney's pitching helped the Northstars hold control through most of Friday's game. He earned the win as he pitched 6.2 innings where he allowed four hits, two earned runs and two walks.

"Trenton pitched an amazing game," Wirtzberger said. "He was hitting spots all night, he was making it difficult for their hitters and our defense made a lot of plays so credit to us for getting ready and being focused for that one."

As the Northstars worked their way through the tournament, several other teams competed through Friday and Saturday. In an elimination game on Friday morning, the Lethbridge Miners kept their season alive with a 15-5 win in five innings over the Medicine Hat Knights. Later that day, the Great Falls Chargers won, 6-5, against the Calgary Strive in another elimination game.

On Friday, the Lewistown Redbirds showed why they were the American No. 1 seed in the tournament as they won, 5-0, against the Tri County Cardinals. In an elimination game on Saturday morning, the Tri County Cardinals stayed alive with an 11-1 win against the Great Falls Chargers.

Later on Saturday, the Vauxhall Spurs defeated the Lethbridge Miners, 14-9, in another elimination game. Saturday ended with another elimination game that saw Vauxhall walk it off to win, 4-3, over the Tri County Cardinals.

The Spurs's back-to-back wins on Saturday kept them alive in the tournament and it set up a rematch with the Havre Northstars on Sunday at 10 a.m. While the Northstars will be coming off a close loss on Saturday, they have been in this situation before so Wirtzberger is not too concerned.

"This is a pretty experienced and mature ballclub," Wirtzberger said. "We've been through a lot of tournaments like this and we've been in elimination games to get into state so I'm hoping that our experience will help us."

The Havre Northstars and the Vauxhall Spurs will play tomorrow at Legion Field at 10 a.m. The winner of that game will then play the Lewistown Redbirds in the championship game at 1 p.m.

Lethbridge 15, Medicine Hat 5

MH 4 0 0 0 0 1 X - 5 6 2

LETH 0 1 3 1 1 9 X - 15 12 2

Great Falls 6, Calgary 5

GF 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 - 6 9 3

CAL 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 - 5 8 1

Lewistown 5, Tri County 0

TC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 2

LEW 4 0 1 0 0 0 X - 5 8 1

Havre 6, Vauxhall 3

HAV 2 0 0 0 2 2 0 - 6 5 1

VAU 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 - 3 4 1

WP - Trenton Maloughney

LP - Jaxxon Pavka

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

Tri County 11, Great Falls 1

GF 0 0 0 0 0 1 X - 1 2 5

TC 0 1 0 7 1 2 X - 11 10 4

Vauxhall 14, Lethbridge 9

LET 0 3 2 4 0 0 0 - 9 18 4

VAU 0 9 2 0 0 3 X - 14 8 0

Lewistown 5, Havre 4

HAV 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 - 4 2 6

LEW 0 0 0 2 1 1 1 - 5 10 1

WP - Xander Wright

LP - Brody Nanini

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

Vauxhall 4, Tri County 3

TC 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 - 3 4 3

VAU 0 0 3 0 0 0 1 - 4 6 1