Cardinals turn away Northstars in first of three straight at Legion Field

The Havre Northstars American Legion baseball team opened its doubleheader against Tri-County, hoping to put an end to a two-game losing streak. Yet, after another struggle with runners in scoring position, Havre got swept for the second time in two days.

The Northstars, who hosted Tri-County at Legion Field Thursday night, dropped the first game 10-6, before losing the second 5-3 in the sweep. Havre is now 15-16-1 overall and 8-8 in the Northern A District.

"I am not sure what is going on but we are a better team than this," Northstars head coach Mickey Williams said. "I think we have gone like 1-for-20 or something with runners in scoring position these last few games. We just have had a really bad stretch and now we are trying to do too much. We will come out of it. I just know that we are a better team than this."

In the first game of the doubleheader, Brendan Garden, who was on the mound for the Northstars, surrendered three runs in the top of the first inning and surrendered 10 total runs on eight hits. He also walked three. Havre out hit Tri-County 9-8 but five errors were damaging to the Northstars cause.

"You can't give other teams extra outs in an inning," Williams said. "We have done that a couple of times recently. We just have to have more baseball sense."

After falling behind 3-0, the Northstars added a run in the bottom of the first and third innings, however, they took the lead in the third inning, when Caleb Allestad and Brenden Danielson each singled in a run to give Havre the 4-3 edge.

Yet, it all came crashing down for the Northstars in the top of the fourth, when Tri-County plated seven runs to grab a 10-4 advantage. Despite adding runs in the bottom of the fifth and seventh innings, the deficit was too large to overcome.

Garden got the loss for the Northstars, while Jake Sedahl and Gavin Mosbrucker both led the way at the plate with two hits apiece. Danielson, Roberts, Allestad, Tyrell Kjersem and Tony Antley all finished with one hit in the loss.

In the second game, Kennedy McKay took the mound for the Northstars and gave up three runs scattered over six innings in a defeat. Mosbrucker gave up two runs in the bottom of the seventh, putting Tri-County ahead 5-0.

That would prove costly, as the Northstars would score three runs in the bottom of the seventh, two of which came on a bases-clearing triple by Mosbrucker. The Northstars failed to take advantage of two separate opportunities with the bases loaded earlier in the game. Despite having one out of less on both occasions, Havre failed to score a run.

"Both times we had one out or less and couldn't get any runs," Williams said. "We didn't have a very day good bunting either."

McKay got the loss for the Northstars, who have fallen closer to the middle of the pack in the Northern A after four straight losses.

Havre will attempt to rebound Saturday and Sunday, with doubleheaders against Great Falls and Lethbridge. Havre will host Great Falls Saturday, with the first pitch going out at 3 p.m. The doubleheader against Lethbridge is set for 12 p.m. Sunday, also at Legion Field.