Miners comeback to take down North Stars

By Lethbridge Herald on July 10, 2024.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Miners Tyler Risling slides in head first to home plate safely ahead of the throw against the Havre North Stars during American Legion A baseball action on Wednesday at Spitz Stadium.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Miners found themselves having to comeback to beat the Havre North Stars 11-9 in the first game of a doubleheader on Wednesday evening at Spitz Stadium.

After being down 5-0 in the first inning and 7-0 by the end of  three innings  the Miners were able to find another gear and have a seven-run fourth inning to help them to the victory.

“We knew that there was a lot of baseball game left after that first inning,” said Nicholas Ankermann, Miners head coach.

“So we just had to kind of flush that, reset, get on the sticks. They had a good pitcher throwing, one of the best pitchers in the league, so we knew that we had to fight. And we kept the game close and we were (able) to get to him later on in the game and drive in runs when we needed to.”

Clutch, long and good at bats is what helped the Miners come alive in the fourth inning.

“We were able to get some guys to drive balls to the gap, so that we could start getting some runs and get under the pitchers skin and make him frustrated,” said Ankermann.

Ankermann saw the challenge for his team as having bounce back effort after that first inning.

“(In) giving up five runs in the first inning, it’s not easy for any team to come back, especially in 36-degree weather,” said Ankermann.

“So we knew it was going to be a hot rest of the game and that (it) was going to be a grind ,and they (Miners) were up for the challenge, and they did well.”

Relief pitcher Dylan Carpenter felt the team get up as the game went along.

“We started to get up, rattled some hits, got the pitcher rattled and hits are just  contagious, said Carpenter.

“We started hitting them and then a few errors come along and that’s the game.”

Ankermann credited Carpenter coming in  and shutting down Havre in the last half of the game.

“It was not an easy position for him to go into,” said Ankermann.

“He knew that they were a good hitting team but we knew that (he) has that fight in him and so he was ready for that challenge and we trusted him. We were thinking about bringing in someone else to close the game and he looked at us and he’s like No, I want it, I want the close and that just showed it to us that’s  the guy that we’re going to go with the rest of the game.”

“I was blowing it past guys,” said Carpenter.

“My curveball was working, it was nice.”

The Miners won the second game 5-4.