Twins second in Helena tourney, sweep Kalispell Lakers doubleheader
Twins' Jacob Polumbus keeps his eye on the ball as he lines up a ground hit in a game against the Kalispell Lakers A on Wednesday, June 30 in Whitefish. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
Glacier Twins player George Robbins rounds first base while watching the ball as he decides to continue on to second after a hitting a double in a home game against the Kalispell Lakers A on Wednesday, June 30. (Whitney England/Whitefish Pilot)
The Glacier Twins downed the Kalispell Lakers A in a doubleheader last Wednesday before heading to Helena on Friday to play in the Keith Sell AA Tournament over the Fourth of July weekend.
The Twins improved their record throughout the week to 38-11 for the season.
On Friday the Glacier Twins traveled to Helena to compete in a tournament spanning from Friday through Monday. The Twins split their games, 2-3, in the tournament.
The Twins played in the championship game on Monday against the Helena Senators AA and struggled to get anything rolling. Glacier lost to the Senators 12-1, taking second in the tournament.
Against Helena the Twins allowed 12 hits and only had four of their own. Helena got up on the Twins by seven runs after just two innings and the deficit was too much to overcome.
Despite the unfortunate ending to the tournament, the Twins had a good showing throughout the weekend. And a bright spot at the end was when Stevyn Andrachick was awarded the Keith Sell Tournament Defensive MVP for his play over the weekend.
Glacier started off the tournament with a 9-1 win over the Butte Miners. Although the Miners were first to get on the scoreboard with one run in the opening inning, the Twins piled on runs including five in the bottom of the third inning.
The next day, the Helena Senators were on the opposing side from the Twins. The Senators jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after two innings. Glacier fought back, tying the game at six all before the Senators scored off an error in the bottom of the sixth inning for a walk-off victory.
Mason Peters, Zach Veneman, and Andrachick each managed multiple hits in the narrow loss.
Glacier responded on Sunday by taking a 10-5 win over the Billings Scarlets, but later fell to the Great Falls Chargers AA team 12-6 in the second game of the day.
Against Billings, the Twins pulled away with four runs in the third inning as Andrachick and Veneman both doubled scoring runs and Jacob Polumbus and Danny Dunn’s at-bats resulted in runs as well.
Earlier in the week against the Lakers, in the first game Glacier got off to a hot start scoring six runs in the first two innings while holding the Lakers to zero. Senior Zach Veneman started on the mound for the Twins and over nearly six innings he held the Lakers to one run on three hits while striking out seven players. Andrachick led the Twins at bat, going 2-for-2.
Glacier allowed the Lakers one run in the top of the sixth inning, but ultimately won 7-1.
In the second game of the evening, the Twins were clicking offensively. The scoring started in the first inning when Twins’ Mikey Glass singled on a 3-0 count to score one run. That was just the start of the home team racking up 11 hits in the game. Glass and Andrachick both had multiple hits for their team, with Glass recording three hits in four times at bat.
The Twins also did not commit any errors in the field. Glacier did give up two runs in the top of the sixth inning, but easily secured the win 9-2.
This coming weekend the Twins will host the Sapa-Johnsrud AA Tournament in Whitefish from Thursday through Sunday. The Twins have just two weeks remaining in the regular season before the district tournament begins on July 21.
