The Havre Northstars recently finished a stretch of 18 consecutive games either on the road or at tournaments at neutral sites. New Media Broadcasters talked with head baseball coach Patch Wirtzberger and he discussed how the team was able to manage in the most recent games, a split on Wednesday against the Medicine Hat Knights.
“Two very tough games,” Wirtzberger said. “That team from Medicine Hat has a lot of pitchers that can throw strikes and they do not make a lot of mistakes.”
“We had to earn everything (and) couldn’t get a lot of good things to happen on offense, even though we were hitting the ball all (night) long,” Wirtzberger continued. “(We) kept on fighting there in the first game and were able to get a win. Colter (Solomon) was great on the mound and we had lots of guys do great things at the plate and in the field.”
“In the second game, we just fell asleep there in the middle innings a little bit (and) couldn’t get a hit,” Wirtzberger said. “(We) really responded well at the end of the game and just weren’t able to finish it out.”
Coach Wirtzberger did give some parting words about his crew and it’s the same message that he carried into last week before his team took off for Canada.
“(The) boys played hard,” Wirtzberger said. “Again, we just needed a couple of breaks in the game or to just stay a little bit more focused there in the middle of the game and we could’ve came out of there with two wins.”
“But, a split on the road is definitely not the worst thing that could’ve happened,” Wirtzberger continued.
The Northstars are gearing up for back-to-back days of baseball on Saturday and Sunday as they grace home turf for the first time since the Havre Jamboree, which was held at the end of May through the first two days of June.
Wirtzberger said that his squad is looking forward to playing in front of a familiar crowd and that the transition will be seamless with the level of competition that is coming to town to start the home stand in Lethbridge.
“Yeah, it’s been a long hiatus,” Wirtzberger said. “We’ve been on the road for a long time and I know the boys are really excited to get back on the home field, playing in front of the home crowd in front of a good team on Saturday night.”
“(It’s a) really good challenge for us,” Wirtzberger continued. “Hopefully, we can bring a lot of energy for 14 innings or whatever it takes and really stay focused for that long. So that’s what it’s going to take for us to beat a team like Lethbridge.”
The next opponent will be a rematch of last weekend’s contest as Fort Macleod comes down to Havre this time around. The Northstars took care of business in two games, beating the Royals by combined score of (25-4). Wirtzberger knows that those same results can be duplicated, especially with the added incentive of playing at home.
“On Sunday, (we play) a team that we’re more familiar with in Fort Macleod,” Wirtzberger said. “We know what we need to do to take care of business there.”
“Hopefully, we can stay healthy and stay focused and have a great weekend here at home,” Wirtzberger continued.
Havre’s games with Lethbridge kick off at American Legion Park starting at 5pm on Saturday. The Northstars and Royals will tangle on Sunday afternoon starting at 1pm.