Glacier Twins fall just short at Ed Gallo tourney

A pair of late runs spoiled the Twins’ shot at an Ed Gallo tournament trophy on Sunday.

Tied 5-5 with the Spokane Expos Webb 18U squad, Glacier lasted extra innings through the eighth and into the top of the ninth before giving up a solo homer to the Expos’ Elijah Hainline to take the lead.

The Twins put up a steady fight throughout the game.

In the opening frame they matched the Expos with a pair of runs, then scored a run in three straight innings from the fifth through seventh inning to knot things up at 5 runs apiece.

As a team they notched six hits and no errors.

Jake Polumbus went six innings on the mound, allowing three runs and five hits while striking out two. Stevyn Andrachick and Jack Price cleaned up on the mound late in the game.

While his team didn’t come out on top, head coach Kevin Slaybaugh said he was impressed with his players’ efforts against Spokane.

“We had a missed fly ball that if it was caught would’ve made a difference, but other than that we played them straight up and they’re quite a team. I was pretty impressed with their efforts.”

That game was the second shot against the Expos, after Friday’s first game didn’t end well.

Spokane didn’t allow a single run in the 15-0 Friday victory.

“I think the boys were just shocked by how good a team they were,” Slaybaugh said. “They got up on us early, and we never could get our feet underneath us and get going. But the other night they knew what they were dealing with.”

In the Sunday night semi-finals, the Twins put up double-digit runs on the Lakers B squad, winning 13-6.

Mason Peters did work for the team, picking up a hit in each of his four at-bats, collecting a single, double and triple in the game. As a team, Glacier notched 14 hits.

The Twins led 5-0 through two innings and put up another five in the fourth inning alone.

George Robbins picked up four strikeouts on the rubber for Glacier, allowing nine hits and five runs over his four innings as well.

On Saturday the team took down the Eagles Baseball Club in a 17-9 blowout.

The Twins also opened the tournament with a 10-2 victory over the Billings Expos AA squad.

Slaybaugh said overall, he felt the tournament was a solid outing for both the A and B Twins squads.

“We learned some stuff, and the boys played well. Both A and B team made it into the semi-finals,” he said. “It was a great tournament for us.”

Earlier in the week the team split a doubleheader with the Bitterroot Red Sox A at home, winning the first game 13-6 but dropping the second one 8-6 after a late score.

The Twins led 6-5 through five innings in the second game, thanks to a four-run burst in the opening frame, but the Sox tallied one run in the sixth and a pair in the seventh to pull out the victory.

The team has another full plate of baseball this week, not to mention this month.

In July they’ll play 11 games and participate in three tournaments, the first coming this week.

On Wednesday they’ll head to Helena to participate in the Keith Sell Tournament, which runs through Sunday.

Slaybaugh said he’s looking to find ways to improve in every facet of the game, and he’s excited to see where his team stacks up in Helena.

“You can always improve on your hitting, and our pitching is coming along. If our pitching gets better and better, everything gets better. But in every area there’s places to improve,” he said. “We’re just going to play the best teams in the state down there. If we continue to progress as we have we should be right in the mix.”