The Havre Northstars took the field for opening day of the 2025 American Legion baseball season, hosting the Kalispell Lakers for a doubleheader on Sunday. It was the debut of head coach Ryan Divish, who played for and coached the Northstars in the past.
Legion Field was rocking all day, especially in the first game when the Northstars won, (3-2). The game was a pitching duel early on as Mayville State-bound pitcher Tanner Delarosa went on a strikeout rampage, fanning 11 Kalispell players overall in four no-hit innings. Each of the Lakers who Delarosa faced either walked or struck out.
After trading zeroes, Tyson Brandon provided speed on the bases, getting on with a single in the fourth inning and proceeding to swipe second and third before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Chason Mader. Kalispell got one run back in the fifth inning, but Northstars pitcher Quin Elliot would go on to pitch out of a bases-loaded jam to keep the score deadlocked.
Havre ended up getting a rally going in the last of the sixth inning. Delarosa doubled and Elliot singled to advance Delarosa to third, bringing up Mader, who reached base via an error, scoring Delarosa to go up, (2-1). Elliot again loaded the bases in the seventh inning and proceeded to give up the tying single with two outs, but was able to get the next batter to fly out to end the inning.
The Northstars threatened in the bottom of the inning with multiple runners on base. Colter Solomon provided a single and then Brandon ripped an opposite-field double that allowed Solomon to score from first base to win it.
In game two, more offense took the stage as Delarosa started the game off with an RBI single to score Brandon. Kalispell struck for two in the second inning and three in the fourth to go up, (5-1).
Havre again answered, scoring three in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit to one. In the blink of an eye, deja vu struck again as the sixth inning began with Delarosa singling in Brandon and also bringing home Ezra Pyle to push the home team in front and seal a (6-5) victory.
A combined four pitchers were used by Havre, including Mader getting the final outs to seal the doubleheader sweep of the Lakers. Havre has a good chunk of time to rest as the next games won’t be until May 10 against the Miles City Mavericks.
