Hi-Line Athlete Profile: Dylan Carpenter, Havre North Stars

Spring in Montana can be unkind to baseball players. Just ask the Havre North Stars, the American Legion baseball team that has had its season-opening game pushed back multiple times.

Yet, the weather can’t keep baseball in Havre at bay forever, so hopefully, this Sunday against the Medicine Hat Majestics, the North Stars will finally get to play some baseball.

And it certainly will be a good thing that they do, because the North Stars have a bevy of players in need of some experience at the Legion level. One player who needs no introduction to Legion baseball, though, is Havre pitcher Dylan Carpenter.

The North Stars have plenty of returning players, but perhaps none more important than Carpenter, especially when it comes to the mound.

Havre was 21-21-1 last season and of the 21 wins accumulated by pitchers last season, four players who accounted for 20 of those wins are returning led by Carpenter, who posted an 8-4 record last season, Jeff Miller, who won six games, Jerod Boles, who won four games, and Brenden Danielson, who won two games, are also back.

Yet, Carpenter was the ace of the staff and the workhorse. He led the team with 97.1 innings pitched and, in addition to winning a team-high eight games and having the second best earned run average at 4.6, he also had four saves in just four attempts.

With their top pitcher back in the fold, along with Boles, Miller and Danielson, who joined Carpenter to account for 200 of the 285 innings pitched by the North Stars last season, the pitching situation appears to be more than solid.

The real question about the North Stars is how are they going to replace the production of players like Travis Roth, Gavin Gunderson and Ryne Antley, who were each integral parts of the team both at the plate and on defense.

Of course, Havre has some talented hitters coming back, highlighted by Jake Sedahl, who led the team with a .433 average last season. He was one of eight hitters who had at least 100 at-bats and four of whom return to the lineup. Joining Sedahl are Carpenter, who hit .333, Miller, who hit .304, and Boles, who hit .295.

But beyond the top four, there is little depth. T.J. Lovenguth hit .361 last season, but did so in just 61 plate appearances. Trey Murphy (71 at bats), Danielson (56) and Nic Tanner (16) are the other players back with significant hitting experience at the Legion level.

Because of that, Havre will need to replace roughly 52 percent of its total at bats from a season ago and that’s where the newest members of the team will need to pick up the slack.

“We have a lot of young guys,” Carpenter said, “but they are going to be good players. They just need to get some experience and I think they will be fine.”

Carpenter, Sedahl, Boles and Miller will need to do their parts, but first-year players such as Ethan Roberts, Gavin Mosbruker, Tony Antley, Kaiden Anez, Kennedy McKay, Brendan Garden and JayR Caplette will need to learn quickly if the North Stars are going to finish atop the Northern A district standings for the second straight season.

That journey was supposed to begin tonight, against the Great Falls Outlaws, but since rain caused the game to be postponed, it will start Sunday, in a doubleheader against the Majestics. The first pitch will be thrown at noon. The games will be held at Legion Field.

Carpenter, who will likely be throwing out that first pitch of the season as the North Stars’ ace, caught up with the Havre Daily News for five questions leading up to the team’s season-opening game against Medicine Hat.

HDN: How excited are you guys to get back on the field, especially with all the delays you have experienced?

Carpenter: “We are really excited. I know that everyone on our team can’t wait to get out there and play.”

HDN: What kind of extra pressure, if any, do you feel when you pitch because you are the ace of the staff and expected to always pitch at a high level?

Carpenter: “I don’t really feel that pressure. I mean it’s there and I know that I have to try and pitch my best game every time I’m out there, but I know if I don’t, my teammates will be there to have my back.”

HDN: You guys have some young players. What is going to be the biggest adjustment for them playing Legion baseball for the first time?

Carpenter: “Just the speed of the game and the pitching. The pitchers throw harder and you see every kind of pitch. Everyone has multiple pitches they can throw, and they know when they should throw them, so that makes it a lot tougher.”

HDN: What the biggest adjustment as a pitcher going from Babe Ruth to Legion?

Carpenter: It’s a lot harder to strike people out. Legion hitters are smarter and they know how to handle all different kinds of pitches.”

HDN: What are all your pitches and, if someone was writing a scouting report one you, what would they say is your best one?

Carpenter: I throw a two-seam fastball, a four-seam fastball, a changeup and a knuckleball. I would say that my knuckleball is my best pitch. I usually try to get ahead in the count and then I throw the knuckleball to try and get the out.”