Twins play catch-up on the road

The Glacier Twins AA opened their 12-day road trip on a good foot June 15 with an 11-10 victory over the Spokane, Wash., Blue Devils.

The Twins spotted Spokane an eight-run lead but managed to work their way back into the Legion baseball game by the eighth inning. Geoff Streeter hit a two-run single for the go-ahead run.

"Spokane is a good baseball club," Twins coach Lindsay Fansler said. "It was a good win for us. Anytime you start a road trip with a win is good."

The Twins traveled to Wenatchee, Wash., the next day for the Apple Valley tournament. They lost the opener to Gresham, Ore., 5-7. Again, the Twins let a team jump out to an early start after spotting Gresham five runs in the first inning.

"We climbed back into it, but we ran out of time," Fansler said.

The Twins picked up a 2-1 win over host Apple Valley in extra innings. Zach Maassen pitched a complete game, allowing only four hits and one run. Cody Elek had a sacrifice fly, and Chris King hit an RBI single for the winning run.

The Twins closed the tourney with losses to two Seattle clubs. Against the Seattle Select team, Glacier again gave up 11 runs in the opening frame before fighting back to 13-9. The game was called after six innings and 2 1/2 hours.

"We worked our way back, but ran out of time," Fansler said.

The Twins wrapped up with an 0-8 loss to Toyota Baseball, from Seattle.

"Offensively, we produced except in that last game," Fansler said. "With this conference stretch coming up, our pitchers have to give us a chance."

Fansler said that falling behind early and playing catch-up won't lead to many wins.

"It's been inopportune errors and our pitchers' inability to throw quality strikes," he said.

The team looks to regroup at Missoula on Wednesday (today) in a conference game against the Mavericks. They play Missoula again on June 23.