North Stars drop road games in Great Falls

The Havre North Stars American Legion baseball team was in action Memorial Day, spending the holiday in Great Falls for a pair of non-conference games.

The North Stars took on the Missoula Pioneers in the first game of the day and lost a hard-fought battle 12-5 in 11 innings. Havre then lost to the Great Falls Outlaws 9-1. The North Stars are now 1-4 on the young season.

Brendan Garden was on the mound for the game against Missoula and put together a solid outing that had the North Stars and the Pioneers headed to extra innings. But in the top of the 11th, the North Stars defense finally faltered, allowing seven runs. Havre failed to score any in the bottom half of the inning and that was the game.

"The wheels just came off," North Stars head coach Dick Fuzesy said. "We played really good and fought hard all the way, just gave up a big inning. Ethan Roberts did some good things, he played some center field and made some nice plays out there and got on base a lot. He also pitched for us, but we had a lot of guys making plays. Kennedy McKay made some nice plays at short. I think we are just a little rusty and we still have some guys coming back."

After dropping a game to Missoula in extra innings, Fuzesy sent McKay to the hill, but after giving up eight runs early in the game, the North Stars couldn't recover and ended up losing 9-1.

"You know they were still non-conference games," Fuzesy said. "We have some kids that haven't played a lot of baseball and you can tell they are a little rusty still, but that will wear off."

The North Stars, who are 1-4 overall, but 1-1 in Northern A District play, will have a big week ahead of them, as they will host Fort MacLeod for a doubleheader in Havre Saturday, followed by a trip to Lethbridge for two games Monday.