Glacier Twins repeat as West A District champs

The Glacier Twins came away with their second straight West A District title on Sunday when they defeated the Mission Valley Mariners 9-4 in Missoula.

The Twins went undefeated in the tournament, narrowly beating out the Libby Loggers on Friday and then defeating the Mariners twice. Glacier will take a 48-14 record into the state tournament this year beginning on Thursday in Havre.

In the championship game, the Twins put up three runs in the bottom of the third inning to open up the scoring in the game. However the Mariners responded right away as Trevor Lake and Xavier Fisher each hit RBIs to tie it up at 3-3 in the top of the fourth.

The Twins ran away with five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to pull away from the Mariners. In the high-offense inning Mikey Glass singled on a 2-0 count to score one run and then George Robbins singled as well, scoring a run. Hayden Meehan drew a walk which added another score and Taylor Bryan hit a single to get two guys home.

Glacier added one more score in the sixth inning. The Mariners tallied one run in the top of the seventh but it was too little, too late.

Jacob Polumbus got the start on the mound for Glacier, playing four innings — he allowed four hits and three runs while striking out two opponents. Robbins came in as relief, which he did a year ago in the district championship as well. Robbins pitched the final three innings, striking out three and allowing just one hit.

The Twins entered the district tournament as the top seed and it showed throughout their play over the weekend.

In their first game of the tournament, Glacier hung on to win 13-12 over the Libby Loggers. The game was a back-and-forth battle throughout all seven innings and the Twins held a five-run lead over Libby at the end of the sixth inning. The Loggers rallied and scored four runs in the top of the seventh, but the comeback fell short.

In the game Glacier collected 12 hits while Libby came up with 11. Zach Veneman, Danny Dunn, and Glass all managed multiple hits for the Twins and the senior, Veneman went 3-for-3 at bat to lead his team.

On Saturday the Twins fought it out with Mission Valley in another close game, but ultimately won 7-3. In the bottom of the fifth, Glacier had a big four-run inning that gave the top-seed a narrow lead. Veneman pitched six innings in the game, allowing three runs on four hits and striking out seven.

Twins’ Stevyn Andrachick led his team in this one, making contact for three hits including one RBI and also scoring two runs.

The Glacier Twins will play Havre on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the first round of the State A tournament in Havre. If the Twins are able to advance in the state tournament, they will move on to the regional tournament which takes place in Alaska in August.