Headed East: North Stars play in Glendive

The Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team is heading into another tournament this weekend.

And with the ups and downs they have suffered this season, they are hoping for a turn for the better.

Today through Sunday the North Stars will be in Glendive for the Glendive Tournament.

Today, the North Stars will face the Lewistown Red Birds followed by the hosting Glendive Blue Devils. Saturday the North Stars will face the Glasgow Reds, and on Sunday they will wrap things up with games against both the Richland County Pirates and the Plentywood Athletics.

"We get to see Lewistown and Glendive quite a bit," North Stars head coach Steve Fanning said. "But we kind of approach this a good opportunity to see some of those teams we don't normally get to see. We don't see (Glasgow, Sidney and Plentywood) a bunch, so this is kind of nice." Havre and the Red Birds have met five times already this season and the North Stars have managed to come away with four wins. And though the North Stars haven't seen the Blue Devils a lot this season, they have split 1-1 this year and are fairly familiar with the Glendive squad.

The Reds, Pirates and Athletics are a mystery to the North Stars.

They haven't played any of the three this season, and have only seen the Reds once, as they attended the North Star Memorial Tournament in Havre.

In the past the Reds have been a very good hitting ball club. And when the North Stars have seen the Pirates, they have been a well-rounded team.

The Athletics are the biggest mystery of the weekend, but Havre is still focused on going out, playing solid baseball, improving and hopefully coming away with a few wins.

Facing five teams out of the East the North Stars don't have the pressure of a conference opponent. But these next few games do hold a lot of importance as they hope to keep improving and play with better consistency.

The North Stars are hoping for solid pitching as well as solid defensive play. And averaging just five or six hits per game, they are also looking for more production from behind the plate.

"We need to get the game experience and hopefully turn things around and start playing better baseball," Fanning said. "Our hitting is the biggest thing, we need to turn that around." Havre is looking to step up their play this weekend and come home with handful of wins. It's not going to be easy with five tough teams out of the east, but Fanning is optimistic.

"Our goal is to come away with at least four wins." Fanning said. "We've been getting away with three (per tournament) this season and we want at least that, but we need to get more than that hopefully." The North Stars enter this weekend with a 19-17 overall record. This weekend's five games will the last nonconference affairs for the North Stars.

Havre returns to Northern District play on Tuesday with a doubleheader against the Medicine Hat Knights.

The North Stars also host Vauxhall on Wednesday and Fort MacLeod on Friday.

The 2010 Northern District Tournament is just around the corner as well. The tournament runs July 22-25 in Fort MacLeod, Alberta.