A League Of Their Own

After suffering their first loss of the season, the Glasgow Reds rebounded nicely with a 13-1 victory over Havre on Monday.

"The batting was good," said Reds Head Coach Jack Sprague. "We had good approaches at the plate all weekend in Havre. I expected them to put good swings on the ball and we've been tinkering with the order of the lineup, but I was pleased with the results tonight so we'll try it again."

Sprague said that the loss to Glacier during the Northstar Tournament in Havre over the weekend wasn't due to miscues, but just running into a team that was making plays and capitalizing on their own opportunities when given.

"We had a little bit of rough luck against Glacier," "We hit the ball hard, but it always seemed to be right at a Glacier player. They're a good defensive team so you have to get clean hits."

The Glacier game, which the Reds fell 4-2, saw Glasgow get in their normal routine of putting runners on early in games.

The Reds had runners on second and third with nobody out in the first inning with the heart of the lineup coming up.

Three outs later, the Reds were sent back to the dugout with nothing to show for it.

"It kind of depleted our momentum a little bit," "We were playing a little cautious after that but they are a good team and you have to take advantage of those situations when they come up. They played better than us that game."

On Monday, the Reds started off hot again and this time cashed in on almost every chance created.

Glasgow jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after one inning and then added eight more runs over the next two innings to cruise to an easy victory over Havre.

Reds pitcher Sam Schultz who was making his first start of the season, said that nerves of pitching in front of the home crowd made the first couple of innings tough.

"I started out a little shaky," Schultz said. "It's my first start at home and everyone is watching. When my teammates started making plays behind me I calmed down and just started throwing the ball."

Gage Legare led the offensive assault for the Reds going 3-3 at the plate with four RBIs and a home run.

"I wasn't really thinking about much during my at bats," Legare said. "I went up there and saw a pitch I liked and hit it over the fence."

Chase Fossum added to the offensive production as he went 2-2 with two RBIs and Jason Thibault had a nice day at the plate as well going 2-3 with three RBIs. Schultz pitched all five innings for the Reds while accumulating three strikeouts and allowing five hits and walks with one earned run.

As the Reds sit at 13-1 on the season, Sprague is happy with the performance so far, but said that there are still some kinks that need to be worked on.

"We need to tighten up our defense a little bit in the outfield," Sprague said. "Our outfield will be tremendous once we get the work in."

This season, the Reds have sent eight different pitchers to the mound to start games and with only one loss on the record, the performance of the staff has impressed Sprague.

"Our pitching has been tremendous," Sprague said. "I didn't know if we'd be able to match the numbers we had last year. We just need to keep developing the arm strength and stay healthy. I'm really happy with the pitching right now."

Sprague said that as the season progresses, the rotation will work itself out for conference play and then the pitchers left out of the rotation will assume roles in the relief capacity. For now though, Sprague is only concerned with the continued development of his pitchers arm strength and keeping them healthy.

The Reds will have a busy stretch of baseball ahead of them starting on Saturday as they face off against Miles City in Glasgow. Following that game, the Reds will play nine consecutive days with their only other home game coming at the end of that stretch on June 23 as they face the Billings Blue Jays.