Stallions succumb to North Star's bats in a sweep

If the Havre American Legion baseball team looked good in a sweep of the Lethbridge Miners on Saturday night, the North Stars looked fantastic in a dominating performance against the Great Falls Stallions less than 24 hours later.

On Sunday afternoon at Legion Field, the North Stars swept the Stallions to improve to 5-1 in Northern District play. The North Stars beat the Stallions 7-6 in a thrilling first game, then crushed Great Falls 11-1 in five innings in the second outing. The two wins meant the North Stars won five times in six league games this week.

"Really pleased overall," Havre head coach Steve Fanning said. "This was a big step for us. To win five times against these teams was big. It was important for us to play well this week and we did that." After a pair of wins in a twilight doubleheader on Saturday night, the North Stars showed no ill-effects having to turn around and play the Stallions on Sunday.

In game one, Havre overcame a rough top of the second inning in which the Stallions batted around off starting pitcher Mark Vukasin to take an early 5-0 lead. Vukasin would eventually battle back on the mound, while Brandon Smith came on for the save — but it was Havre's bats that got the North Stars through the second inning and into the win column.

In the bottom of the second inning, Jon Currie led off with a double and Roman Surber followed with a single to bring Currie around. C.J. Evans then crushed a triple and scored on a Brayden Grimson single to cut the Stallions' lead to 5-3.

The game stayed that way until the bottom of the fifth inning when the North Stars tacked on three more runs to take the lead for good. Justin Jensen walked, Currie was hit by a pitch and Surber singled them in before pinch hitter Adam Briese drove in the gamewinning run with a single to left field.

Havre tacked on another run in the sixth inning, while Great Falls added one in the seventh.

"It was really good to see us do things the right way in the first game," Fanning said. "We got some bunts down, we ran the bases well, we played some small ball and did it the right way. That was good to see. I thought our pitching got better as the game went along too.

Mark (Vukasin) settled down and battled through the early part of the game, and Brandon (Smith) came in and shut them (Stallions) down. I thought we just did a lot of the little things, the important things you need to do to win a close game like that." Vukasin and Smith each struck out four Stallions on the mound, while the North Stars got a stellar 3-for-4 performance from Grimson at the plate.

Surber went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Evans, Jensen, Grimson and Briese also drove in runs.

While the first game was dramatic in its finish, the second outing on Sunday was anything but.

Havre rode hot bats and a dominating pitching performance by Evans to an easy five-inning win.

Evans went the distance for the North Stars, throwing a one-hit gem.

He struck out four batters, walked just two, and only allowed seven total base runners. At the plate, Evans also shined, going 2-for-4 with a double and a triple. He was also helped out by the North Stars pounding out 10 hits on the day.

"C.J. pitched great," Fanning said.

"Especially for not having that much experience out there at this point in the season, he was just really dominant.

And our defense was very good behind him. Actually, that's something that's been really good all week. We've played really well defensively." The North Star offense jumped on Great Falls starter Zander Ehnes right away in game two.

Evans led off the game with a double, his third extra base hit of the day. Briese followed suit with a triple to deep center field, while Jensen and Grimson also singled as Havre led 4-0 after one inning.

The North Stars also batted around in the fourth inning, scoring six times.

Evans tripled, his second of the day, while Brandon Smith also doubled in the inning. In all, Evans, Briese, Smith, Jensen, Vukasin and Grimson all came around to score, sending the Stallions home early.

"Our offense is playing well right now," Fanning said. "We got good production up and down our lineup today and we need that. The guys are swinging at the right pitches and we're making good contact. That's good to see.

"I'm really happy with what we did this week," he added. "We played some good teams and got five conference wins. That's a really good start. Our pitching hung in there all week against some solid lineups, our offensive production was really good and we played good, smart defense. So I'm really happy with where we're at right now." The North Stars will now host their annual memorial tournament starting Thursday afternoon at Legion Field.

Havre will play five games from Thursday to Sunday afternoon.