Glacier Prep 13s takes tourney title

By DAVID ERICKSON / For the Hungry Horse News

The Glacier Prep 13-year-olds took first place at the annual Guy Houston Babe Ruth League baseball tournament in Columbia Falls and Whitefish over the weekend, with a 9-7 win over Kalispell in the championship game on Sunday at the Sapa-Johnsrud Memorial complex. In their first tournament of the season, Glacier went 5-0 over the weekend.

Jake Mitich had a fantastic game, belting a two-out, two-RBI double in the bottom of the sixth inning to give his team the lead. Mitich also pitched the final three innings, closing out the game with a strike-out in the seventh inning.

"It was a good team win," Glacier head coach Eric May said. "It was a combination of timely hitting and a good-pitching performance. We all came together to make plays when we needed to make plays."

The Guy Houston tournament is the first of five straight weekend tournaments for the Babe Ruth teams, culminating in the state tournament to be held in Whitefish on July 16-20.

"The state tournament is probably going to be more baseball than this valley has ever seen," league president Ray Queen said. "There'll be 20 teams playing more than 60 games in five days. We'll be bringing a lot of people to town, and we could use a lot of volunteers."

Glacier Babe Ruth teams are composed of players from Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Bigfork. May said it's been nice seeing the kids work together.

"They've formed a nice little bond. It's neat to see them cheer for each other," he said.

The Glacier 14-15 year-old team took second place at the tournament, going undefeated until the title game. Having beaten Kalispell twice, they fell to their cross-valley rivals in the final game, 8-6.

"With all the baseball that we played, a few guys had sore arms," Queen said. "We had the lead most of the game, and the lead changed several times. It was a really good game."

Queen said both teams showed great sportsmanship.