North Stars roll to Glendive championship

A slow start to their weekend didn't prevent the Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team from finding ultimate success.

Going 4-1 over the course of three days, the North Stars captured the title at the Cullinan Memorial Baseball Tournament this weekend in Glendive.

Havre opened tournament play with a loss to Lewistown on Friday, but then reeled off four straight wins to take the tournament title with the best overall record among all teams in attendance.

"Good weekend of baseball," Havre head coach Steve Fanning said. "Despite the opening loss against Lewistown, we played well and ended up winning the tournament."

The North Stars lost to the Redbirds for just the second time this season, falling Friday afternoon 10-1. The Redbirds got to Havre starter Justin Jensen early on, and built up a commanding lead.

"This wasn't how we wanted to start the weekend, too often we let our pitching determine our game play," Fanning said. "When we realize a starter who doesn't have his best stuff we need to step it up in other areas."

Offensively, the North Stars were Kyle Miller, who was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Jensen, CJ Evans, Brandon Smith, Mark Vukasin, Adam Briese, Roman Surber and Spencer Morkrid all had base hits as well.

Despite the difficult opener, it didn't take long for Havre to bounce back.

On Friday night, the North Stars thumped host Glendive 7-1 behind a complete-game gem from Surber.

Against the Blue Devils, who Havre is now 2-1 this season, Surber tossed a beauty of a game, allowing just three hits while striking out nine.

"Roman has been pitching great and continued that this weekend," Fanning said. "He was hitting spots and threw really well."

The North Stars scored three runs in the first six innings, but exploded in the seventh. Havre scored four runs on RBI singles by Jensen, Briese and Morkrid to pull away from the Blue Devils. At the plate, Shane Kemmer was 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and an RBI while Smith was 4-for-4 with two RBIs. Jensen was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Briese did the same. Evans and Kolby Sukut added hits, including an RBI triple from Evans.

Pitching was key again in Havre's lone Saturday game. Miller threw a complete-game two-hitter as the North Stars took care of the Glasgow Reds 7-1. Meanwhile, the bats were alive for Havre against the Reds. Smith smashed a three-run homerun, his fourth of the season, to put the North Stars up 3-0 after one inning. Surber and Briese added doubles in the sixth inning as Havre put the Reds away with three more runs. Aside from the big hits by Surber, Briese and Smith, the North Stars got another big game from Kemmer, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Sunday was yet another big day for the North Stars.

Havre started the day by crushing the Richland County Patriots (Sidney) 13-2. Smith was in control on the mound, striking out 14 batters and scattering just three hits on his way to the complete-game win. Havre also pounded out 16 hits and scored four runs in the first two innings, added a five-run fifth inning, and tacked on four more in the seventh for good measure.

"Brandon had a great game, they couldn't touch him, his stuff was on," Fanning said. "This was a solid performance, we definitely played at our level which was our goal."

Against the Patriots, Havre got plenty of balanced offense. Kemmer went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Jensen was 1-for-2 with an RBI, Miller was 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs, Smith was 2-for- 5, Evans was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Mark Vukasin was 2-for-5 with an RBI.

Briese added a hit and Surber collected two hits and an RBI in the win.

And the momentum kept going for Havre in its final game of the long, hot tournament. Sunday afternoon, the North Stars took care of the Plentywood A's. Vukasin picked up the win on four innings of work and Kemmer pitched once solid inning of relief.

Havre's offense was aided by Sukut's first career homer, a two-run shot in the third inning. The North Stars were paced at the plate by Kemmer who was 1-for-2 with a double and Jensen who was 4-for-4 with an RBI. Miller was 1-for-3, Vukasin was 1-for-2 and Surber was 2-for-3 with an RBI.

The 4-1 record improved Havre's season total to 23-18 overall. The North Stars don't have any nonconference games remaining on their schedule.

"Overall, this weekend is a big step in the right direction," Fanning said.

"We needed to start to pick up some steam before the district tourney, I hope that is what we are doing. Our pitching was lights out and we batted .380 on the weekend as a team. When we do that we are going to win a lot of games. We are starting to figure out what works for this team, and how to manufacture runs in different situations.

"We had three pitchers who were the best at the tourney, but Brandon Smith did bring home some hardware as the Pitching MVP for the tourney," he added. "We also had a handful of players who could have been the offensive MVP. We need to carry this momentum into the busy week of conference games ahead. As a coaching staff we were very pleased to finally see us play up to our abilities. This is what we have been looking for."

Havre now has six Northern District games this week as it tries to position itself for a deep postseason run. Havre's big week starts with a doubleheader against Medicine Hat on Tuesday at Legion Field.