Ponies headed back to state fastpitch tourney

Just as it did during the regular season, the Havre High softball team had some trying times at the Central A divisional tournament last Friday in Lewistown. But, in the end, the Blue Ponies took care of business and achieved their goal of making a second straight trip to the Class A state tournament.

The divisional tournament, which was supposed to go through Saturday, was shortened to just one day due to rain and all games scheduled to take place Saturday were canceled. Yet, that didn't matter to the Ponies, who rebounded from a 9-5 opening loss to Livingston, to knock off Browning 14-0 and Lewistown 13-2 in order to finish second in the tournament and wrap up the state tourney bid.

"I think that it's a great accomplishment after everything that we have went through with the injuries we had at the start of the season," HHS head coach Bob Evans Sr. said. "At times, I think the girls were unsure if they would make it, but we kept gettting better and won the games we needed to win to get back.

"It's too bad that we couldn't finish on Saturday," He added. "It would've been fun to play it out, but we got the games in that we needed to so that's what matters."

HHS would have clinched a berth with an opening-round win over Livingston Friday and had a solid chance to do so after Scout Boucher homered in the bottom of the fifth to help tie the score at 4-4. Yet, the Rangers added five runs in the top of the sixth and then held on for a 9-5 win, which put the Ponies on the brink of elimination.

Despite the loss, Boucher was stellar at the plate, going 3-for-3, hitting her second home run of the season and posting two RBI's. Paige Henderson 2-for-2 with an RBI, while Jacey McDonald and Dani Wagner each had two hits. Wagner was hit with the loss as the starting pitcher after surrendering nine runs in seven innings. She struck out eight and walked five.

"That game was really closer than it ended up being," Evans said. "We were right there and we had one bad inning that cost us."

After falling to the Rangers, HHS turned its attention to Browning and for the third time this year, defeated the Indians with ease. Henderson and JJ Hassa combined to no-hit Browning in five innings and Jacqueline Martin led the way for the Pony offense with a three-run homer. Tara McCormick also had two hits and two RBIs. Payton Howard also added an RBI as did Boucher in the 14-0 win.

After demolishing Browning, the Ponies just needed to knock off Lewistown Friday night to clinch a state tournament berth. And with the season on the line, Evans sent Wagner to the mound and was not disappointed as she held the Eagles to two runs on four hits as Havre cruised to an 11-run win in five innings.

"Dani really pitched well for us against Lewistown," Evans said. "I think she only walked one batter, so she had great control and did a good job of throwing strikes, and we played good defense behind her."

The Havre offense also came to play, especially Wagner, Morgan Mazurkiewicz, Henderson and Boucher. Those players make up the first four batters in Havre's batting order and against Lewistown they went a combined 7-for-14 with four extra base hits and a total of nine RBIs. Henderson had the best day of any Pony hitter with three hits, including a double, a triple and five RBIs in the blowout win for HHS. Howard also added two hits and two RBIs.

The Ponies led 2-1 after the first inning, but added four runs in the second and five in the third to make the score 11-1 and blow the game wide open. With the win, the Ponies advanced to the state tournament, which begins Thursday in Anaconda. Havre will open the tournament against Miles City.

"We had played Lewistown a couple times this year and they were close games, but I think we knew that we were the better team going into that game," Evans said. "The girls were just determined to win that game and they played great from start to finish."

Livingston 9, Havre 5

Livingston 100 125 0 – 9 13 1

Havre 100 030 1 – 5 12 0

WP – Sierra Higgs

LP – Dani Wagner

Havre – Morgan Mazurkiewicz 1-3, Scout Boucher 3-3, Dani Wagner 2-4, Paige Henderson 2-2, Jacey McDonald 2-4, Shania Carlson 0-3, Harlee Boucher 1-4, Payton Howard 1-4, Jordyn Warren 0-4.

Livingston – M. Gibson 1-3, Emily Cornell 2-4, C. Versland 1-5, Sierra Higgs 2-5, S. Mushrush 2-4, B. Murphy 1-3, P. Gavre 2-4, C. Doky 0-4, M. Murphy 2-3.

Havre 14, Browning 0

Browning 000 00 – 0 0 3

Havre 643 1 x – 14 10 0

WP – Henderson

LP – Heavyrunner

Havre – Madison Tommerup 1-1, Scout Boucher 1-2, Claire Worm 1-2, Paige Henderson 0-2, Samy Huston 0-1, Tara McCormick 2-2, Jacqueline Martin 1-3, Payton Howard 2-2, Harlee Boucher 2-2.

Browning – C. Pree 0-3, B. Padget 0-2, N. Old Chief 0-0, A. Falcon 0-2, J. Young Running Crane 0-1, Powell 0-2, L. Bremmer 0-2, R. Heavyrunner 0-1, C. Madden 0-1.

Havre 13, Lewistown 2

Lewistown 100 01 – 2 4 7

Havre 245 02 – 13 10 0

Havre – Morgan Mazurkiewicz 2-2, Scout Boucher 0-4, Dani Wagner 2-4, Paige Henderson 3-4, Jacey McDonald 0-4, Payton Howard 2-4, Shania Carlson 0-4, Harlee Boucher 0-1, Jordyn Warren 1-2.

Lewistown – Hayes 1-3, Butcher 0-3, Comes 0-2, Southworth 2-2, Gapay 0-1, Towne 0-2, Weichel 1-2, Kolstad 0-2, D. Gapay 0-1, Gremaux 0-1.