North Stars fight back

The Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team entered Friday's night doubleheader against Lewistown hoping to trim the gap between them and the first-place Redbirds.

Yet, Lewistown had other ideas, as it pounced on Havre early in the first game and routed the North Stars 19-0. However, instead of tossing in the towel, the North Stars rallied in game two and clawed back for an 8-6 win to earn a split. The North Stars are now 19-19 on the season and 13-9 in the Northern A District.

"It was big for us to get that split," North Stars head coach Dick Fuzesy said. "I was proud of us for coming back and winning that second game. That was the first time that we have beat Lewistown since I have been the manager."

While the Havre offense struggled in the first game between the two teams, managing just two hits, the Redbirds caught fire early and never looked back. They opened the game with two runs in the top of the first, then scored four in the second, six in the third and seven more in the fourth to take a commanding 19-0 lead.

In all, the Redbirds finished the game with a total of 19 hits, most of them coming off of Havre starting pitcher Brendan Garden, who allowed 19 runs in four innings of work. Lewistown was also helped by seven Havre errors, which helped lead to the lopsided score.

The North Stars managed just three baserunners in the loss as Kennedy McKay and Gavin Mosbrucker each had one hit and Ethan Roberts drew a walk.

"Their pitcher did a great job, I don't want to take anything away from him," Fuzesy said. "It just seemed like everything we hit went to a defender and everything they hit, went to an open spot. We also had some errors, too, it just kind of snowballed a bit on us."

In the second game of the double dip, Austin Delarosa was on the bump for the North Stars, and he did what he needed to early, limiting the Redbirds to just one run in the first four inning. In the meantime, the North Stars finally got their bats going in the bottom of the third inning.

After getting two quick outs in the inning, Havre went on a two-out rally, and a two-run single by Tony Antley, gave the North Stars their first lead at 2-1. But the inning was far from over. McKay, the next batter, ripped a two-run double that made it 4-1, before an RBI single by Trey Murphy made it 5-1 in favor of the home team.

Yet, in the top of the fifth, Lewistown managed to scrap their way back into it, scoring three runs to trim the lead to 5-4. Then. in the top of the sixth, the Redbirds got the tying run in, erasing what had been a four-run deficit.

However, in the bottom half of the inning, the North Stars struck again and it happened to come on another two-out rally. Eventually, the bases were loaded and Antley was up with two outs in the inning and for the second time in the game, Antley came up huge. This time, he belted a double to the outfield that scored all three baserunners, giving Havre an 8-5 advantage.

"Tony was a kid that played up at Legion last year and he didn't have to," Fuzesy said. "And he struggled last year, but now I think it's really starting to pay off. Now he knows what to expect and he has seen it before. He's hitting the ball great right now; he's leading us in RBIs."

In the seventh, McKay took to the mound to put the game on ice and he did so, recording the final three outs to get the win, despite pitching just two innings. He allowed one run in that time and struck out two. Delarosa surrendered four runs in five innings and struck out one.

At the plate, it was all about Antley, who was 2-for-4 with 5 RBIs in the win. McKay also had a hit and two RBIs, while Kelden Sullivan, Murphy and Garden all had two hits each. Murphy also had an RBI to his credit.

The North Stars will pay a visit to the Great Falls Chargers Thursday, before returning home for back-to-back doubleheaders Friday and Saturday against Vauxhall and Medicine Hat. The Northern A District tournament will also be in Havre and that gets underway July 19.

Lewistown 19, Havre 0

Lewistown 246 70 - 19 19 2

Havre 000 00 - 0 2 7

LP - Brendan Garden

Havre batting - Kelden Sullivan 0-2, Cody Rennick 0-1, Ethan Roberts 0-1, Jake Sedahl 0-2, Brenden Danielson 0-2, Tony Antley 0-2, Kennedy McKay 1-2, Trey Murphy 0-1, Gavin Mosbrucker 1-2, Brendan Garden 0-1, Calvin White 0-1.

Havre 8, Lewistown 5

Lewistown 001 031 0 - 5 7 1

Havre 005 003 x - 8 12 2

WP - McKay

Havre batting - Kelden Sullivan 2-4, Ethan Roberts 1-3, Jake Sedahl 1-4, Brenden Danielson 0-2, Tony Antley 2-4, Kennedy McKay 1-3, Trey Murphy 2-3, Gavin Mosbrucker 1-3, Brendan Garden 2-3 .