Twins lose to Bucks to end season at state

The Glacier Twins fell short against the Bitterroot Bucs on Saturday at the American Legion Baseball Montana-Alberta Class A State Tournament in Lewistown, recording a narrow 5-3 defeat in what turned out to be the team’s final game of the season.

Facing the Bucs, Glacier was in a must-win situation in order to stay alive in the tournament. After beating Gallatin Valley 10-9 in their first game of the tournament, the Twins then dropped a close one to the Lewistown Redbirds, 9-6, the following day.

Saturday’s matchup with Bitterroot was a familiar one for the Twins, as they had just defeated the Bucs the previous weekend in the Western A District Championship game. The Bucs opened up the scoreboard first after Blake Hinsdale grounded out, allowing his teammate Zach Christopherson to score.

Following a quiet third inning by both teams, Glacier went off for three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead. The Twins loaded the bases after some wild pitching by Bucs’ starting pitcher Jake Scully. Glacier’s scores came off a single by Trenton Tyree and a sacrifice fly ball by Mason Peters.

Twins players Cade Morgan, Payton Davisson and Tyree each made it home for a run in that inning, recording the only scores of the game for Glacier. Morgan led his team offensively, going 2-for-3 at bat against the Bucs.

Glacier lost the game after giving up three runs to the Bucs in the fifth inning and another one late in the sixth. Morgan hit another single in the bottom of the seventh, but the next three batters failed to make it on base as the game came to a close.

Despite coming up short in the state tournament, the Twins finished out the season 35-21 overall and were the Western District A champions.