Chris Peterson Havre Daily News cpeterson@havredailynews.com
Havre Comets American Legion baseball teams will have their hands full this weekend, when they co-host the annual Havre Baseball Jamboree tournament at Legion Field. The Havre Tournament, which begins this morning and runs through Sunday evening will feature six different teams playing a combined total of 14 games. Joining the Northstars and Comets in the six-team field will be the Glasgow Reds, The Helena Representatives, the Bitteroot Red Sox and the highly-touted Gallatin Valley Outlaws. The Northstars are especially looking forward to another meeting with Gallatin Valley. The Outlaws and Northstars met last weekend in the Gallatin Valley tournament, with the Outlaws pulling out a 6-5 victory in extra innings. The Northstars also lost to the Outlaws at the Tom Taleff Memorial Tournament last month in Great Falls. And they will no doubt be looking to prove a point and avoid a third straight loss to the Outlaws when the two teams do battle in the featured game of the tournament, tonight at 9 p.m. “Gallatin Valley is some of the best competition that we will face all season long,” Northstars head coach Steve Fanning said. “They have already beat us this season, but we are going to get another chance at them this weekend. And I know that is something that we are going to be really looking forward to.” After playing just one game tonight, the Northstars will be challenged in back-to-back games on Saturday against the Helena Reps and the Bitterroot Red Sox in a pair of tough games on Saturday. The Northstars will play the Reps at 5:30 p.m, followed by the Red Sox at 8 p.m. The Northstars will wrap up their busy weekend on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., when they go head-to-head with the Glasgow Reds. The Northstars (22-9) have been hitting on all cylinders recently led by the strong hitting of Bryan Heath, Tanner Donovan and Sean Peterson, among others. The Northstars are also getting stellar starting pitching from Austin Small, Andrew Lindquist, and Anthony Wirtzberger, as well as Peterson and others. And that should help them in a tournament format. Both Donovan and Heath have enjoyed recent hot streaks at the plate. At the Gallatin Valley tournament, Donovan was 9-for-16 with one homerun and 10 RBIs to pace the offense. In the same five-game stretch, Heath went 10-for-20 at the dish with one homer and seven RBIs. Of Heath’s 10 hits last weekend, five went for extra bases, with three doubles and one triple to go along with five singles and a homerun. The Northstars pitching staff has also been outstanding recently, highlighted by the stellar pitching of Austin Small, who tossed a no-hitter and allowed just one baserunner in a 10-0 win over Butte in five innings last weekend. “I am seeing a lot of improvement when we play team below our level of competition,” Fanning said. “Instead of playing down to our competition, we are winning those games in dominating fashion, which we hadn’t been able to do previously. “Right now we are getting contributions from everybody,” he added. “Again our pitching has just been great and our three-through-five batters have really been carrying us on offense. Right now I think we are where we need to be coming into a busy schedule of conference games.” Meanwhile, the youthful Havre Comets, who have seen their share of struggles in recent weeks, will be out for a couple of upset wins, when they square off against the Bitteroot Red Sox and the Gallatin Valley today at 4 and 6:30, respectively. On Saturday, the Comets will take on the Helena Reps at 3 p.m., and they will wrap up their jamboree schedule on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. against the Glasgow Reds. If the Comets, who are coming off a district win over the Great Falls Stallions on Wednesday, are going to come away with victories this weekend, they will need strong play from their top three players in Paul Jensen, Kyle Miller and Shane Kemmer. Jensen, Miller and Kemmer are all key members of the Comet’s pitching staff and batting order. Also, when they are not on the mound, they play key roles in the field, with Jensen at third base, Miller at shortstop and Kemmer at multiple positions in the infield and behind the plate. The Havre Jamboree will get under way this morning when Glasgow takes on Helena. The second game of the day features Bitteroot against Helena. Havre Tournament Schedule Friday 11 a.m. Glasgow Reds vs. Helena Reps 1:30 p.m. Bitteroot Red Sox vs. Helena Reps 4 p.m. Bitteroot Red Sox vs. Havre Comets 6:30 p.m. Gallatin Valley Outlaws vs. Havre Comets 9 p.m. Gallatin Valley Outlaws vs. Havre North Stars Saturday 10 a.m. Glasgow Reds vs. Bitteroot Red Sox 12:30 p.m. Gallatin Valley Outlaws vs. Glasgow Reds 3 p.m. Helena Reps vs. Havre Comets 5:30 p.m. Helena Reps vs. Havre North Stars 8 p.m. Bitteroot Red Sox vs. Havre North Stars Sunday 9 a.m. Gallatin Valley Outlaws vs. Helena Reps 11:30 a.m. Gallatin Valley Outlaws vs. Bitteroot Red Sox 2 p.m. Glasgow Reds vs. Havre North Stars 4:30 p.m. Glasgow Reds vs. Havre Comets
