Glacier Twins fall to Helena in opener

It was a slow opening weekend for the Glacier Twins, who dropped both games in a doubleheader against the AA Senators in Helena.

Glacier (0-2) dropped the first game 5-2 and the second 6-1.

Ryan Veneman had two solid games for the twins, banging out a single in both games and providing some solid pitching in the opener.

Glacier only had two hits in the opener and three in the later game, compared to Helena’s 13 and seven hits.

While those weren’t the final scores head coach Scott Murray was hoping for, he said he realizes it’s tough to play a strong club like Helena so early on.

“They’re a good offensive powerhouse,” he said. “We weren’t disappointed with how we played. It was our first game of the season, and all in all we look pretty solid.”

Murray noted that some of the things the team needs to fix this week, like fielding errors, haven’t been easy to work on with such wet weather keeping the field in rough shape. Hopefully, Murray said, the weather will cooperate during the week and his team will be able to clean things up before they travel to Lethbridge, Alberta, to face the AA Elks.

The Twins will play on Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at noon.

“Right now we just want to get the fundamentals down, get our pitching semi-solid, start hitting line drives and just be baseball smart when we’re out there,” Murray said. “I have a lot of confidence in these guys.”

GAME 1

Glacier 200 000 0 — 2 2 2

Helena 300 200 x — 5 13 3

Ryan Veneman, Nathen Hader (5); Brett Jacobs, Andrew Rosston (5). W - Jacobs, L - Veneman.

GLACIER — Tom Hellwig 0-3, James Sampson 1-3, Veneman 1-3, Derek Kastella 0-3, Grayson Bistodeau 0-3, Bryce Fagerland 0-2, Gunner Marsh 0-1, Jack Schwaiger 0-2, Billy Baret 0-1, Zach Veneman 0-1, Tyler Murphy 0-1, Kaleb Meeham 0-2.

HELENA — Ryan Arntson 2-4, Tayler Carlson 3-4, Colin Sassano 2-4, Kienan Stief 1-3, Ray Moore 2-4, Rosston 0-2, Caeden Suero 1-4, Isaiah Meza 0-2, Connor McCarvel 2-3.

2B - Carlson, Moore; RBIs - Carlson 2, Moore.

GAME 2

Glacier 100 000 0 — 1 3 3

Helena 002 400 x — 6 7 1

Tyler Murphy, Matt Morrison (4), Z Veneman (4), Tom Hellwig (6); Tayler Carlson, Conor McCarvel (5). W - Carlson, Murphy - 2.

GLACIER (0-2) — Baret 0-2, Thomas 0-1, Hellwig 1-3, Sampson 0-3, R Veneman 1-3, Kastella 1-3, Fagerland 0-3, Murphy 0-2, Hader 0-1, Schwaiger 0-1, Meeham 0-1, Z Veneman 0-1.

HELENA (3-1) — Arntson 1-4, Eamonn Byrne 1-2, Keaton Ralston 0-1, Sassano 1-4, Moore 3-3, Stief 0-1, McCarvel 0-3, suero 0-1, Jackson Maynard 0-1, Tanner McMahon 1-3.

RBIs - Moore 2, Byrne, Sassano.