George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com
For the fourth straight year, the Montana ASA Men’s Fastpitch state championship is staying in Havre. Thanks to a pitching legend, great defense and a powerful batting lineup. But there is something a little different about the 2006 state championship. On Sunday night in Missoula, the Gallery Lounge ended Master Sports three-year hold on the state championship with 17-9 thumping in the do-ordie championship game of the 2006 state tournament. The win came after Master Sports had come back from the dead in the first championship game. And after the Gallery had already beaten Master Sports 2-1 earlier in the day. The Gallery got its state championship on the strong right arm of fastpitch softball legend Gary Joe Evans, some fantastic defense by shortstop Don Saisbury and catcher Patch Wirtzberger, and some devastating power-hitting by Dylan Saisbury, Daine Solomon and the rest of the talented Gallery lineup. Despite taking time off from the game, Evans was his usual dominant self on the mound. He pitched every inning of every game for the Gallery, including a 15-strikeout, no-hit masterpiece in the teams opening game on Saturday, an 8-0 win over the Clinton Clowns. In the second game of the tournament, Evans threw a two-hit, 3-0 gem against the powerful Silver Dollar team from Missoula, who was led by pitching and hitting legend Alan Powell. Evans started his Sunday championship run off by holding the three-time defending state champions to one run in a dramatic, 2-1 victory over Master Sports in the semifinals. In that game, Dan Wirtzberger, who had missed the entire season due to injury, went 3-for-3. “The semifinal win was a big one for us,” Dan Wirtzberger said. “It was a really tight ballgame and we were able to pull it out against a really good Master Sports team. “It feels really good to come down here and win this tournament, especially for Gary Joe,” he added. “I started this team last year just trying to be competitive with Master Sports in our league. So this is really big for us.” After the loss to the Gallery, Master Sports, led by pitcher Ryan Divish had to dig deep in the loser-out bracket against the Silver Dollar. After falling behind early, the defending champions stormed back to win 10-9 and get into the championship game. Divish pitched well in the victory, and Andy Smith and Kyle Sheppard, both of whom had a monster weekend at the plate, led the comeback offensively. Sheppard was 4- for-4, and Smith hit an important 2-run home run, one of five homers he belted throughout the tourney. “That says a lot about our team to come back and win that game,” Divish said. “We hadn’t lost a state tournament game in three years so we were pretty down after we lost to the Gallery in the semifinals. But I have played with a lot of these guys for a really long time, and they don’t quit. We just kept fighting against the Silver Dollar because if we were going to go down, we were going down swinging.”
And the Master Sports comeback continued in the first championship game. Needing to beat the Gallery twice, Divish and Smith guided Master Sports to a dramatic 9-8, 10-inning win, forcing a winner-take-all championship game. In that final game, Evans proved to have the most gas left in the tank on the mound. Divish was forced out of the game early and the Gallery exploded for 11 runs in the sixth inning en route to the 17-9 win and the state championship. Dilan Saisbury and Solomon each cracked 2-run home runs off of Smith, who came on in relief of Divish. And Master Sports never recovered. “It is disappointing and it hurts because I just couldn’t physically answer the bell in the last game,” Divish said. “I put that squarely on me. Even though I threw a lot of innings, as our pitcher I had to go out there and give us three good innings somewhere, and I just couldn’t do it. “This is tough because it was probably my last state tournament game in Montana,” he added. “But it is a little easier to handle because Gary (Evans) is a legend in this game and so its always a little easier to lose to a legend. The Gallery is a really good team, and they deserved to win. We knew after we beat them for the title last year that they would be back, and they earned it this weekend.” Despite the disappointing finish, Divish was as solid as ever throughout the tournament. He led M.S. to an opening- round, 11-2 win over Silver Dollar BFI, and then struck out 18 hitters on Boomers Pub of Missoula in the quarterfinals on Saturday night. Master Sports beat Evans and the first-year Gallery team for the 2005 state championship in Havre. But Evans, who has now recorded state championships with multiple teams, and interestingly enough in 1986, 1996 and now in 2006, added to his softball lore by being on top of his game all weekend. D a n Wirtzberger said that anytime that is the case, an Evans-led team is in pretty good shape. “This was really special because we really wanted to win this one for Gary, especially after last year,” he said. “He is just a tremendous pitcher, and anytime you have him on your team, you have a really good chance to win. And he was on fire the whole weekend. “I also have to say that our catcher, Patch Wirtzberger did an incredible job for us,” he added. “It isn’t easy to go behind the plate for five games and catch a pitcher like Gary who is throwing 77 all day long. We couldn’t have done this without his play. All our guys played great this weekend. Those games against Master Sports were as intense as softball gets, and our guys kept rising up and finding ways to get it done. It feels pretty good right now.” Unlike in 2005, Havre couldn’t quite sweep the trophy presentation this year. Taco Johns, who finished third at state a year ago, went 1-2 on the weekend. The team, led by pitchers John Shennum and Matt Kretchmer opened the tournament with a 5-3 loss to the Silver Dollar. T.J.’s bounced back with a 20-0 win over Bonner, before being ousted from the tournament by another Bonner team, 6- 5. Both the Gallery Lounge and Master Sports, along with the Silver Dollar qualified for the 2006 ASA Men’s C National Tournament in Marietta, GA., later this month
