Chris Peterson Havre Daily News cpeterson@havredailynews.com
The Havre Comets American Legion baseball team desperately needed a sweep or a split in their doubleheader against the Great Falls Sparkies Thursday afternoon at Legion Field. Unfortunately, they got neither, which put a serious damper on their hopes of qualifying for the Northern A district tournament. Thanks to a comedy of errors and an ineffective pitching staff, the Sparkies cruised to a two-game sweep over the Comets by the scores of 8-4 and 14-2 in five innings, respectively. “I think that we just need to be better prepared to play,” interim Comets head coach Patch Wirtzberger said. “Especially need to learn to be better prepared for the second game of doubleheaders, but I think that is something that comes with experience. “The scores didn’t necessarily show it today,” he added. “But I think we begun to show a lot of improvement, we just need to put everything together and we have five more games left to do that.” Wirtzberger was managing in place of his brother Dan Wirtzberger, who has taken a leave of absence from the team for personal reasons, but will be back managing the team this weekend against Lethbridge. Great Falls jumped out to a big lead in game one with back-to-back threerun innings and never looked back on their way to the four-run win. An RBI double in the top of the third by Hunter Carlyon gave Great Falls the first run of the game, then later in the inning Tucker Cook and Joel Laurence hit consecutive RBI singles to push the lead to 3-0. With the score 4-0 in the next inning, Carlyon ripped another run-scoring double to extend the lead to 5-0. He later scored on an error by the Comets giving the Sparkies a six-run advantage. The Comets rallied in the fifth inning and behind four RBI singles by Brett Normandy, Shane Kemmer, Paul Jensen and Nick Nault, the lead was trimmed to just two at 6-4. But the Comets would come no closer, as the Sparkies added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the sixth to once again put the game out of reach. Ethan Hortick got the win for Great Falls after allowing four runs on five hits and striking out seven in seven strong innings of work. Josh Haas was on the hook for the loss for the Comets after getting hit up four eight runs on 10 hits and striking out just four batters. Carlyon finished the game 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the win. The second game between the two teams was flat out ugly. The Sparkies scored five runs in the first inning, then three in the fourth inning and a whopping six in the fifth to trounce the Comets by 12 runs. Great Falls amassed a total of 14 runs in the game to go along with 15 hits and no strikeouts, all of which was credited to Kyle Miller, who was given the loss for the Comets. The best performance of the game went to Carlyon, who went 4-for-4 in the game with two singles, a triple and an inside the park home run to go along with an astounding six RBIs. In the doubleheader, Carlyon combined to go 7-for-8 with four extra-base hits and nine RBIs. On the other hand, the Comets offense was downright dismal, managing just two runs on four hits against the stellar pitching of Carlyon, who earned the victory for the Sparkies. Paul Jensen was 3-for-3 in the loss for Havre to go along with an RBI in one of the only bright spots for the Comets. The Comets will have a chance to redeem themselves this weekend and get back into the race for the final berth in the district tournament when they play host to Lethbridge on Sunday at 1 p. m. at Legion Field. “They have beaten us already a few times this season,” Wirtzberger said referring to Lethbridge. “But we were competitive in the games and I think with all that’s on the line for us in those games, the kids will definitely show up ready to play.”
