Havre softball wins first Northeast A division title

This season has been one to remember for the Havre High softball team. Throughout the season, the Blue Ponies have dominated conference play to earn the No. 1 seed in the Northeast A Divisionals this week in Miles City.

They opened the postseason Tuesday with a 7-3 win over Miles City to advance to the divisional title game against Lewistown Wednesday afternoon. In a rematch of last year's title game that Lewistown won, the Ponies got their revenge and won 4-0 for the divisional title.

"It's awesome," HHS head coach Tony Vigliotti said about winning the program's first Northeast A divisional title. "We made sure we were doing the little things right defensively and we did that the last two games and earned ourselves a Northeast A division championship."

The Ponies' defense played great throughout the contest. In her second straight start pitching for the Ponies, Elle Verploegen pitched all seven innings. Along with no runs, she did not walk any batters, only allowed five hits and struck out five batters. She was helped out by the rest of her defense as the Ponies did not commit any errors in the game.

Just like most of their conference games this season, the Ponies found offensive success early. Early in the bottom of the first inning, Lizzi Haney got on base with a single to center field. Alyssa Oliver then hit a double to right field to drive in the run and give Havre a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, Oliver reached third base on a passed ball. She then scored on a Lewistown error to give Havre the 2-0 lead.

However, the Ponies were not able to keep up their offensive momentum over the next few innings. Karolyne Southworth, who pitched the first five innings for Lewistown, had a solid day at the mound as she only allowed three earned runs, five hits and one walk. She also struck out seven Ponies at the plate.

But the Ponies were able to break through again in the bottom of the fifth. They started the inning with Danni Wirtzberger getting walked and Avery Carlson getting hit by a pitch. The Ponies then used their base running to put themselves in position to score. After both runners stole bases to advance to second and third, Wirtzberger scored on a sacrifice fly from Haney. Carlson then scored on a wild pitch to give Havre a 4-0 lead.

"We've been running the bases pretty well all year so we had to manufacture some runs today," Vigliotti said. "When you do all those things right, you play good softball and we did the last two days."

Several Ponies made plays at the plate throughout the contest to lead them to victory. Both Haney and Oliver recorded an RBI in the contest. Oliver also led the Ponies at the plate as she went 2-for-3 in the game.

The Eagles tried to get back in the game with a couple hits to get on base in the top of the sixth. But they could not take advantage as the Ponies did not allow a run in the frame. In the top of the seventh, the Ponies recorded three quick outs to end the game and secure the championship.

Not only did the win secure the first divisional title in program history, it improved the Ponies' record to 10-0 in conference competition this season. With the undefeated mark in the Northeast A to end the season, Vigliotti believes it demonstrates how tough the Ponies are.

"I think they're resilient. It's hard to beat a team that you're very familiar with three times in one year and we did that twice," Vigliotti said. "It just means that they're able to take it one game at a time, put things aside and just go after what's in front of them."

While the Ponies will celebrate their first divisional title, the work is not done yet. Next weekend, they will head to Hamilton to compete in the state tournament against the best Class A schools in the state. While their greatest challenge is still ahead, Vigliotti believes the divisional title gives them the confidence that they need in order to compete with the best of the best.

"For us, it's all about confidence. We've been pretty confident at the plate all year, we've been pretty confident in our pitching all year and I think our pitchers and our defense realized that they're pretty good too," Vigliotti said. "So we're going to just keep doing what we're doing and next week, we'll go play as many softball games that we have to and hopefully we can play all weekend."

The HHS softball team will next play in the Class A State Tournament in Hamilton starting next Thursday.

Havre 4, Lewistown 0

LEW 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 5 2

HAV 2 0 0 0 2 0 X - 4 7 0

WP - Elle Verploegen

LP - Karolyne Southworth

Havre Batting - Avery Carlson 1-2, Lizzi Haney 1-2, Alyssa Oliver 2-3, Molly Huse 0-3, Hannah Gingery 0-3, Camille Keeley 1-3, Jersi Morse 1-3, Keylee Kline 1-3, Danni Wirtzberger 0-2.