The Havre Northstars American Legion Baseball team is gearing up as the season enters its second weekend.
Last weekend, the Northstars split their season opening doubleheader at home to Billings Expos A, and Manager Patch Wirtzberger says it allowed them to see what areas need improvement.
“Defensively, we’d like to clean up the physical errors. But early in the season, that’s kind of gonna happen. We’ll get back to work in practice, we’ve had a good week of practice, and try and clean that stuff up. And our approaches at the plate need to be a little bit better to start. They got better as the day went on, and I think that’s stuff that will get sharper as the season goes on.”
Wirtzberger says he came away from this past weekend impressed by his pitching staff, including starters Brody Nanini and Kale Reno.
“(Our starters) were wild at times, but then they seemed to dial it back in and find their rhythm. And then the guys that came in after them, Lane (Kinsella) and Trenton (Maloughney) did really well too, trying to keep us in the game (in the opener) and in that second game, closing the door. So that was really good to see. And then hitting performances I thought across the board were up and down. But as a group, I thought they performed really well in the second game.”
Next up for the Northstars is a pair of home doubleheaders against Billings Expos AA this weekend, and Wirtzberger says they will be a formidable foe.
“They are going to have some hitters and some guys that can throw it across the plate with some speed, so we’re going to need to be ready right off the get go and really focused right off the start because we know all it takes is one bad inning to kind of doom you for a game. So being sharp every single pitch is something that’s going to be very important for us.”
First pitch of the first doubleheader is set for 3 PM on Saturday, while the second doubleheader will begin at 10 AM Sunday. All four games are scheduled for nine innings.
