Twins advance to state
There are more efficient formulas than, “wait for a crooked number in the sixth inning,” but the Glacier Twins don’t need to fix what isn’t broken.
For the second straight day, they used a big sixth inning to build a lead on the Bitterroot Bucs, then held on. On Saturday it was a three-run outburst on the way to a 5-3 win; on Sunday it was four runs and a 6-5 squeaker for the Western A District title.
“All you can try to do is hang with teams and hopefully you come out on top at the end,” Twins coach Kevin Slaybaugh said. “I like the way our guys are getting some grit about them. They’re hanging around — you’re not going to blow them out.”
Glacier (34-19), which, along with the Bucs (27-21) advanced to the State A tournament beginning Thursday in Lewistown, didn’t lead until the sixth. The Bucs built gaps of 2-1 and 4-2 and could have had more.
A hard slide by Colby Kohlman forced a bad double play throw and got the Bucs’ third run home in the fifth inning, but then Jesse Sage — he’d hit the fielder’s choice grounder – was out trying to get to third.
In the sixth, Bitterroot put together three hits and a walk against Twins reliever George Robbins. The Bucs scored once but gave away an out at home: Caden Zaluski hit a single to right to load the bases; the throw came to home and got past catcher Zach Veneman; Veneman relayed to Robbins to nab Brandon Schneiter coming in from third.
Meanwhile Schneiter, who helped his own cause with an RBI double in the first, was keeping the Twins stymied on the mound with off-speed deliveries.
“We were early all day,” Slaybaugh said. “We couldn’t make the adjustment. Fifth inning, we went to a two-strike hitting approach. We shortened up and then we got a little something going.”
“I think it’s more timing, obviously,” said Twins’ center fielder Cade Morgan, who went 2-for-2 and scored three times Sunday. “We were always out in front. We’ve been so used to fast pitching because we play so many AA teams. It was just timing.”
Morgan, who’d doubled and scored in the fourth, led off the sixth with a single. He went to third on Jacob Polumbus’ hit and came in on Michael Glass’ infield single. Jack Price followed with a grounder that got away from the shortstop, and Polumbus scored the tying run.
Glass came in on a Mason Peters’ two-out single; Veneman followed with a knock to bring in Price.
That was big because Kohlman hit a solo home run off George Robbins with one out in the seventh. Robbins, a side-arming righty who’d come in for Trenton Tyree in the fourth, had done solid work; after Kohlman’s shot he hit the next two hitters.
Stevyn Andrachick then came in and fanned the next two Bucs for the save.
“The Bucs are playing really well,” Slaybaugh said. “They’re getting it done.
“Robbins – he’s a young guy and he’s kind of got a funky side-arm delivery. The only time he gets in trouble is when he starts dropping his arm level too much.”
“George did phenomenal,” Morgan added. “Starting pitcher, closer, whatever – if we need something big we know he’s going to throw strikes.
“We had almost all our pitchers today except for Zach Veneman, who threw the opener for us, and Jacob Polumbus. We have such a deep pitching staff it doesn’t really matter.”
It didn’t in Florence. The Twins, who missed out on state last year after faltering at districts, are back on top.
“That inning,” Robbins began. “It felt like it was going to happen and things started going our way and we scored a few.”
Tyree fanned three in his three innings, giving up one hit and two runs, one earned. Robbins scattered six hits and a walk in three innings.