Optimist claims Babe Ruth title

It took an extra night to finish, but the Havre Youth Baseball Association’s Babe Ruth league has a champion for 2014.

Friday night at Legion Field, Optimist defeated Wells Fargo 15-7 in the Babe Ruth city championship game. Optimist, which is composed of Ethan Roberts, Jake Irvin, Gavin Mosbrucker, TJ Lovenguth, Hondo Owens, Kelden Sullivan, Tucker Carlson, J.R. Caplette, Evan Davison, Dawson Kinsella, Jacob Huckabee and Morgan Olson, and coached by Mark Irvin and John Davison, went undefeated in tournament play. The squad bested Calypso 3-2 Wednesday night, then beat Wells Fargo 8-6 Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Wells Fargo, made up of Brady Ophus, Nate Korb, Brendan Garden, Jace Stokes, Josiah Harrison, Bobby O’Leary, Nic Tanner, Lane Caplette, Tyler Griffith, James Christenseon, Jacoby Fox and Wyatt Johnson, and coached by Doug Garden and Dustin Malley, bested Northern Montana Hospital 13-12 Wednesday night, then bounced back from its first loss to Optimist by beating Calypso 14-12 in Friday night’s third-place game. Calypso also took out NMH 17-7 on a loser-out game Thursday night.

In Friday night’s championship, Wells Fargo busted out of the gate by scoring six runs in the top of the first inning. But Optimist stormed right back, plating 11 runs in the bottom of the first. From there, the pitchers were in control. Optimist pitchers allowed just one more run, while the team tacked on four more runs of their own in the sixth inning. Lovenguth got the win for Optimist on the mound.

At the plate, Optimist scored 15 runs on 17 hits, while Wells scored its seven runs on 12 hits.

Note: For the results from Sunday's HYBA Major League championship games, see Tuesday's Havre Daily News.