Havre loses back-and-forth game to begin state tournament

Coming off a North District championship last weekend, the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club looked to carry over that play into the Class A State Tournament in Laurel this weekend. The Northstars started the tournament Wednesday with a game against the Billings Blue Jays. The Northstars put up a tough fight to start the tournament, but lost, 10-9, on a walkoff.

The Northstars started strong as they took control in the top of the second inning. With the bases loaded and no outs, Drake Berreth scored on a fielder's choice to give Havre the lead. Chason Mader and Brody Nanini then hit back-to-back singles to drive in another pair of runs to stretch the lead.

Conner McKay kept it rolling with a single to left field to drive in another run for a 4-0 lead. With the bases loaded again, Jevin Jenkins hit a single to left to drive in two more runs for a 6-0 lead.

But the Blue Jays responded in the bottom of the second. With the bases loaded, Nanini hit the batter with a pitch to drive in a run for Billings. A single then drove in another run for the Blue Jays. A Blue Jay then scored on a wild pitch to further cut into the deficit. Another single drove in another pair of runs to cut Havre's lead to 6-5.

In the top of the third, Kale Reno scored on a sacrifice fly from Nanini to extend Havre's lead to 7-5. But in the bottom of the third, the Blue Jays responded by scoring a couple runs to tie the game 7-7.

Both teams struggled to score over the next few innings until the top of the seventh. That is when Nanini hit a solo home run to left to give Havre an 8-7 lead. Later in the inning, Ezra Pyle scored on a sacrifice fly from Jenkins to extend the lead to 9-7.

But with their backs against the wall, the Blue Jays battled in the bottom of the seventh. With two runners on, a single drove in a run to cut Havre's lead to 9-8. After a single to load the bases, a double drove in a pair of runs to give Billings the victory.

Jenkins was given the loss on the mound as he allowed three hits, three earned runs and four walks as he pitched the last 2.0 innings of the game. Nanini pitched the first 4.1 innings of the game, where he allowed 10 hits and six earned runs.

While the night ended with a loss, the Northstar offense had a strong start to the tournament. McKay went 3-4 with an RBI at the plate while Nanini went 2-4 with three RBIs. Jenkins went 1-3 with three RBIs and both Reno and Terek Shipp went 2-3 at the plate.

With the loss, the Northstars fell to 43-17-1 on the season and from now on will have to play in elimination games in the tournament. The Havre Northstars continued the tournament with an elimination game against the Butte Miners earlier this morning.

Billings 10, Havre 9

HAV 0 6 1 0 0 0 2 - 9 14 2

BIL 0 5 2 0 0 0 3 - 10 13 1

WP - C. Tracy

LP - Jevin Jenkins

Havre Batting - Brody Nanini 2-4, Ezra Pyle 2-4, Conner McKay 3-4, Jevin Jenkins 1-3, Drake Berreth 1-4, Terek Shipp 2-3, Kale Reno 2-3, Colter Solomon 0-4, Chason Mader 1-3.