It was an up and down weekend for the Havre High softball program, but in the midst of a 2-2 split the Blue Ponies still came away with a key victory.

On Friday and Saturday the Central A Ponies were in Butte where they participated in the Butte Central Invitational, splitting four games and going 2-2.

On Friday the Ponies fell to the Anaconda Copperheads 6-5, but came back to defeat the conference rival Butte Central Maroons 6-2.  And on Saturday the Ponies opened up play with a frustrating 20-5 loss to the Hamilton Broncs before defeating the Hardin Bulldogs 7-3.

Opening the tournament against the Copperheads, the Ponies started strong.  HHS opened the game with a 3-1 lead after the first inning.  But after four shutout innings for both squads, the Copperheads tacked on five runs in the sixth to take a 6-3 lead.  The Ponies made a comeback attempt in the seventh, adding two runs, but came up short.

“We had one bad inning,” Havre High head coach Bob Evans said.  “And that cost us the ball game.  We played fairly well up until then but then collapsed.” The Ponies committed two errors in the loss and also had their own opportunities to score, but had three girls thrown out at the plate.

“The game was close but we didn’t play as well as I would have liked to,” Evans said.

Andrea Nault and Chelsea Nottingham each had a good game, going 3-of-4 with two RBIs each.  Holly Cartwright went 2-of-3 while Tabitha Myers went 2-of-4 with an RBI.

The Ponies turned around and got a big in against a conference opponent on Friday.

“It was a big win for us and a bad loss for them,” Evans said.

“We played really well.  For us, it was the biggest game we had, conference games you always want to win.” Getting the win over the Maroons accomplished a few things.  It knocked the Ma r o o n s out of the state tournament for the first time in the program's history, as well as giving the Ponies a No.  2 seed in the state tournament.

It also gave the Ponies a 2-0 advantage on the season.

In the first and second innings, the Ponies knocked in one run each.  And both squads drove in one in the sixth, giving the Ponies a 3-1 advantage.  But in the seventh the Ponies added three more to take the conference win in their final meeting of the season.

The Maroons struggled in the sixth and seventh innings, committing four errors, helping the Ponies score their final four runs of the ballgame.

HHS combined for nine hits in the important win with Kelli Kelsey leading the way with a 2-of-2 performance and an RBI.

Cartwright and Nault also went 2-of-4.  Ciara Donovan was 0-of-2 but also had an RBI for the Blue Ponies.

But after the big win on Friday, the Ponies suffered one of their toughest losses of the season on Saturday.

The Broncs handed the Ponies a 20-5 loss, their worst loss since losing 14-2 to CMR early in the season.

“In all of our losses besides this one and to CMR we have been right there in the game,” Evans said.  “This was upsetting.

This late in the season I don’t expect my girls to play like that.

I can live with a loss, but it’s hard to live with one like that.

When you get embarrassed it’s not fun.

“We didn’t do anything right,” Evans added.  “Our pitching wasn’t any good, our fielding wasn’t any good and our hitting wasn’t any good.  We didn’t do one good thing in the whole ballgame.” To start the game, the Ponies were competitive.  After the first inning the Ponies trailed 2-1.

But after a tough second, the Broncs held a 9-3 lead, tacking on seven in the second.

The Broncs also added five in the third and six in the fourth, while the Ponies added one more in the third and one in the fifth.

Nault led the offense once again, this time going 2-of-3.

Nottingham, Myers, Kelsey, Davee MacLeod and Jasmine Chagnon had one hit apiece.

It was easily one of the toughest losses the Ponies have been handed this season.  They get very little production, and gave up 22 hits.  But like they have so often this season, the Ponies bounced back.

HHS finished the tournament with a solid come-from-behind win over the Bulldogs.

In the second inning the Bulldogs drove in two runs to take a 2-0 lead.  They held the lead through three, but the Ponies surged in the fourth and put up six runs of their own.  HHS would add one more in the sixt, and would hold off the Bulldogs who added one last run in the seventh.

“We gave them a couple runs because we didn’t play well,” Evans said.  “But then we basically shut them out the rest of the ball game.” Myers was on the mound for the Ponies and got her second win of the weekend, allowing only five combined runs while doing so.

Offensively, the Ponies had six hits, scoring their seven runs on nine Hardin errors.  Cartwright, Kelsey, Ita all had hits for the Ponies, while Myers had two RBIs.

With the weekend split the Ponies improved to 7-2 in the conference, but dropped to 13-7 overall.

Havre has a road trip to Laurel on Friday to wrap up the regular season.