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Idaho Falls' Makai Ferguson bats against the Belgrade Bandits at Legion Field this past Friday. Idaho Falls and Belgrade were two of the teams that came to Havre to compete in the Northwest Regional Tournament.
After much anticipation, the Northwest Regional Baseball Tournament finally began at Legion Field this past weekend. In the first regional tournament ever in Havre, many close and exciting games started the weekend as several teams from Montana and out of state competed for the regional title.
The tournament started Friday morning with a meeting between the Service Cougars and the Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen. Service qualified for the tournament after winning the Alaska state championship while Coeur d'Alene won the Idaho state title.
In the first action of the weekend, Service defeated Coeur d'Alene 4-0. After a couple scoreless innings to start the game, the Cougars scored a run in the top of the third inning to take the lead. Then in the top of the fifth, the Cougars scored another pair of runs to extend their lead to 3-0.
Service scored another run in the top of the sixth to make it a 4-0 game. The Cougars continued to hold Coeur d'Alene scoreless in the last couple innings of the game to secure the win and advance in the tournament.
The tournament continued later on Friday with the Powell Pioneers defeating the Redmond SunWest 2-1. Powell qualified for the tournament after winning the Wyoming state championship while Redmond won the Oregon state title.
In the top of the first, the SunWest struck first as they scored a run to take a 1-0 lead. But in the bottom of the third, the Pioneers finally responded with a couple runs to take a 2-1 lead. Powell's pitching then held Redmond scoreless the rest of the way to win the game and advance to the next round.
Later on Friday, the Belgrade Bandits and the Idaho Falls JNS faced each other. Belgrade won the Montana state championship to qualify for the tournament while Idaho Falls finished second in its state tournament. At the end of the game, Belgrade emerged victorious with a 5-0 win to start the tournament.
After a slow start to the game, Belgrade scored a run in the bottom of the third to take the lead. Then in the bottom of the fifth, the Bandits got rolling to score three runs and stretch the lead to 4-0. Belgrade scored another run in the bottom of the sixth for good measure. Idaho Falls failed to respond as Belgrade closed them out for the victory.
After a lengthy rain delay through Saturday morning and afternoon, the second day of the Northwest Regionals finally began with an elimination game between the Coeur d'Alene Lumbermen and the Idaho Falls JNS. Looking to stay alive, the Lumbermen won 6-0.
The Lumbermen got started early as they took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. After a lull on offense, the Lumbermen got rolling in the bottom of the fifth as they scored four runs to stretch their lead to 5-0. They scored another run in the bottom of the sixth for good measure and they closed it out in the top of the seventh to eliminate Idaho Falls from the tournament.
Right after that game, the Redmond SunWest and the Ridgeline Wolverines competed in another elimination game. With the season on the line, the SunWest won, 12-2, in six innings.
The Wolverines started strong as they scored in the top of the first to take the lead. They then scored another run in the top of the second to push the lead to 2-0. The SunWest responded with a run in the bottom of the second to cut their deficit to 2-1.
The SunWest got things going in the bottom of the third. Thanks to a couple runs in that inning, Redmond took a 3-2 lead. The SunWest then got on a roll as they scored seven runs in the bottom of the fourth. An additional two runs in the bottom of the sixth gave Redmond a 12-2 lead to end the game early and stay alive in the tournament.
Later on Saturday, the Service Cougars defeated the Belgrade Bandits, 2-1, to remain undefeated in the tournament. It was slow going to start the night for both teams, but Service scored a run in the top of the fourth to take the lead.
Belgrade eventually responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game. Both teams continued to struggle offensively as the game remained tied heading to the seventh inning. But in the top of the seventh, the Cougars took advantage of Belgrade's mistakes to score a run and take the lead. The Cougars then closed it out in the bottom of the seventh to win the game.
The Northwest Regional Tournament continued Sunday with several more games. Coverage of those games as well as Monday's games will be in the Tuesday edition of the Havre Daily News.
Friday
Service 4, Coeur D'Alene 0
SER 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 - 4
CDA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0
Powell 2, Redmond 1
RED 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 5 1
POW 0 0 2 0 0 0 X - 2 5 0
Belgrade 5, Idaho Falls 0
IF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 3 4
BEL 0 0 1 0 3 1 X - 5 6 0
Saturday
Coeur d'Alene 6, Idaho Falls 0, LO
IF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 5 5
CDA 1 0 0 0 4 1 X - 6 8 3
Redmond 12, Ridgeline 2, LO
RID 1 1 0 0 0 0 X - 2 2 1
RED 0 1 2 7 0 2 X - 12 11 0
Service 2, Belgrade 1
SER 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 - 2 5 2
BEL 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 - 1 4 3
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