Havre All Stars win in dramatic fashion

Daniel Horton Havre Daily News [email protected]

In a slow start to their second game, the Havre Babe Ruth All Stars team narrowly escaped their second straight Montana Babe Ruth State Tournament loss. On Thursday night Havre came from behind to defeat the Bozeman All Stars 12-10 in seven innings of play at Legion Field in Havre. Through two innings the game remained close with no score. But in a productive third inning, Bozeman took a 9-0 lead. But it wasn't just the bats that gave Bozeman the lead, it was some crucial mistakes by the Havre defense. Bozeman scored its nine runs on only two hits, and on five Havre errors. But Havre wasn't totally out of contention yet. In the bottom of the third inning, they did manage to cut the Bozeman lead to 9-2 Tyson Kultgen knocked in a run and Danny Roe scored from third when Logan Connor got caught in between first and second base on a Bozeman pickoff move. And after Chet Shrauger got three quick outs in the top of the fourth, Havre struck again in the bottom of the fourth. Shrauger earned an RBI single to cut the lead to 9-3 and Nick Owens earned two RBIs on a single to cut it to 9-5. Kultgen earned two more RBIs when he reached first base on a Bozeman error. And finally cutting the Bozeman lead to 9-8, Kultgen also scored a run when Roe was caught in a pick off move between first and second. Havre held Bozeman off for another inning, but in the sixth they managed to score their 10th run, pushing their lead back to two. But in the bottom of the sixth, the Havre bats came alive one more time. Roe scored on a Bozeman balk to get within one run, and Connor scored the tying run on a throwing error. Now tied 10-10, Shrauger came through again with an RBI single to give Havre the 11-10 lead. Dillon Seely followed in suit, and gave Havre a 12-10 lead on an RBI single as well. Connor came in to close for Havre, and he did just that. He walked the leadoff man, but good defense behind him turned a double play the very next batter. And after forcing pop up, Havre got the third out in the seventh, as well as the 12-10 victory. Roe started on the mound for Havre and put in two innings of work, with no Bozeman runs. Shrauger came on in relief and allowed nine runs, but also settled down and had seven strikeouts. On offense, Owens, Roe, Kolby Sukut and Shrauger led Havre by going 2-of-4. And Owens and Shrauger both had two RBIs a piece. Kultgen was 0-of- 3, but added three RBIs to the mix. In other Thursday games, Northern defeated Glacier 7-4, South Valley defeated Bozeman 3-2, Kalispell defeated Hi-Line 5-0, Glendive defeated North Valley 4-1 and Mission Valley defeated Glendive 16-4. Today play begins at 8 a.m. when South Valley takes on Hi-Line. And following, Glacier takes on Glendive at 10 a.m., North Valley takes on Northern at 12 p.m., Bozeman takes on Kalispell at 2 p.m., Mission Valley takes on Glacier at 4 p.m. and Havre will face Hi-Line at 7 p.m. Round robin play continues Saturday morning, and bracket play begins Saturday afternoon. The semifinals are slated for Sunday morning. The championship game of the 2009 Montana Babe Ruth State Tournament will be held at 2 p.m.