Ponies get innings in Great Falls

Even though the Havre High softball team already got its season underway last Tuesday, this past weekend was the first official weekend of high school softball, and the Blue Ponies kicked it off by taking part in the Great Falls Jamboree.

The jamboree consisted of four games, four each team. But each team was limited to four games ,and they will not count as full games when it comes to regular season records. The field was filled with Class AA teams, and in fact Havre was the only Class A team in attendance. Therefore, thanks to the difficult competition and despite showing positive signs the Ponies went 0-4 on the day, losing to Bozeman, Billings Skyview, CMR and Great Falls High.

“At times I thought we played really well,” HHS co-head coach Mark Majeres said. “Our hitting was better than it was, we had a quite a few really solid hits. Our pitching was good, Dani Wagner, pitched two games and Paige Henderson pitched two games and Jacy McDonald also pitched. We might not be as far along as we need to be but the girls haven’t thrown a lot of innings yet, so they will get there.”

The Pones opened up the day against Bozeman and played a pretty competitive game before falling by a final score of 6-2. Next up was Billings Skyview, which downed Havre 13-2. The third game saw CMR knock off HHS 20-3 and in the fourth and final matchup, the Ponies fell to Great Falls High 8-1.

Yet, Havre has no reason to be discouraged with the results. The Ponies got to face some difficult competition, which should only help them improve in the early stages of the 2015 season.

“We still have some work to do with our pitching and defense but our hitting was good,” Majeres said. “Paige Henderson hit the ball well. Dani Wagner had a good day and Jacey McDonald hit the ball well and as a team we hit the ball quite a bit better than last year so that was a pleasant surprise.”

HHS (0-1) will be back on the diamond Tuesday in Havre, when the Ponies will host Central A rival Browning. The action will get underway at 5 p.m., at the Sixth Avenue Memorial Field.

Note: No stats from the Great Falls Jamboree were available at press time.