Northstars look to keep winning at state tournament

After winning the Class A North District Tournament this past weekend, the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club will next compete in the Class A State Tournament in Laurel this week. With some great ball clubs at the tournament this week, Havre head coach Patch Wirtzberger believes the Northstars have some tough battles ahead.

"The state tournament is always tough. Wins are hard to come by and everybody at this point is a really good baseball team," Wirtzberger said. "So we're going to have to bring our 'A' game if we're going to try to stay in this tournament and accomplish our goals."

The Northstars begin the tournament today with a game against the East No. 2 seed Billings Blue Jays. In their lone meeting earlier this season, the Blue Jays defeated Havre, 10-4, so Wirtzberger expects a fight to start the tournament.

"It's a good team. They can really swing the bat, they play pretty good defense and they've got a couple of pitchers who can get up there and throw strikes and get batters out," Wirtzberger said. "So it presents a good challenge. It'll be fun to see those guys again and fun to see how much better everybody's gotten."

There will be many other exciting games to start the tournament Wednesday. At 10 a.m., the West District champion Glacier Twins will face the South No. 2 seed Butte Miners. The Northstars went 0-2 against the Miners during the regular season.

The tournament will continue at 1 p.m. with a game between the West No. 2 seed Mission Valley Mariners and the South District champion Belgrade Bandits. Havre suffered a 14-5 loss to the Bandits earlier this season.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, the East District champion Laurel Dodgers will play the North No. 2 seed Lethbridge Miners. During the season, the Northstars went 1-1 against Laurel and they went 3-4 against Lethbridge. However, the Northstars have won three straight games against Lethbridge, including two games at last weekend's district tournament.

With this many strong teams at the tournament, Wirtzberger believes whoever is playing their best baseball will be left standing at the end of the weekend.

"Everybody's tough at this point," Wirtzberger said. "I believe that it's wide open, it's anybody's ballgame and it's all about who's playing the best baseball at this point."

The Northstars have been playing their best baseball of the season as they have a record of 43-16-1 and they just won the North District championship. If the Northstars want to keep things rolling, they will need their best players to continue to do well in the postseason.

The Northstars have several pitchers in their staff that they can rely on this weekend. Terek Shipp leads the team with 61.2 innings pitched where he has a 6-4 record, 53 strikeouts and a 2.270 ERA. Kale Reno should also get some time on the mound this week as he has a 7-3 record and 43 strikeouts this season.

The Northstars will also need to put up the runs this week if they want to go on a deep run. Conner McKay will look to make an impact at the plate where he has a .380 batting average and 36 RBIs this season. Ezra Pyle will look to produce at the plate this weekend as he has a .367 batting average and 38 RBIs this season.

If the Northstars can continue to pitch well and produce at the plate, Wirtzberger believes they can keep up their winning ways and go on a run this weekend.

"If we can have solid pitching and defense, we're going to keep ourselves in ball games. But it's when we start to swing the bat well that we can really dictate the pace of the game and take it to teams," Wirtzberger said. "That's what the boys have been doing, so hopefully we can keep that going and keep this run going."

The Havre Northstars will begin the Class A State Tournament in Laurel today at 4 p.m. with a game against the Billings Blue Jays.