Glacier Twins struggle in Helena Keith Sell tourney

The Twins weren’t lacking in tough competition during the Keith Sell Tournament last weekend in Helena.

Glacier played five games in the tournament, winning just one against some top teams in the region.

The team opened with a tight 6-3 loss to the Helena Senators on Thursday.

Glacier took an early 2-0 lead after a pair of first inning runs in that game, but the Senators came roaring back. Helena scored a pair of runs in the third inning and followed that up with three more runs in the fifth to take a 5-2 lead.

Both teams managed one more run apiece in the remaining innings, but the Twins couldn’t mount the comeback.

As a team, Glacier put up six hits to Helena’s eight.

Then later in the day they followed that up with a game against the Bozeman Bucs, but couldn’t get the bats going, falling 4-1.

On Friday the team took on the Yakima Beetles, but fell 8-5 after a late scoring surge from their opponent.

After Yakima jumped out to a quick lead, the Twins finally got the bats going with a lone run in the second inning and four runs in the third to jump out to a 5-3 lead, but the Beetles weren’t done.

They put up four of their own runs in the fifth to tie things up, then scored the winning run in the top of the seventh to put themselves ahead for good. As a team, the Beetles notched 14 hits through seven innings.

Jacob Polumbus took to the mound for the Twins, striking out two but allowing seven runs on 10 hits. Stevyn Andrachick led the Twins with two hits in four trips to the plate.

The Twins got one in the win column on Saturday, though. They took down the Great Falls Chargers in a blowout 10-2 victory.

The bats were hot from the start, as Glacier put up a four-run first inning and added to that lead with another five runs in the fourth. As a team, the Twins put up five hits an djust one error.

Trenton Tyree struck out four in six innings for the team, allowing two runs and a lone hit, and Andrachick had another strong game offensively, going 2-4.

The Twins concluded their tournament play with a 6-4 loss to the Mudville Pinnacle NW team on Sunday.

The scoring came late for Glacier, who put up all four of their runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Mudville hit consistently through the game, scoring at least one run in five of seven innings and racking up 10 hits overall.

This week the Twins (19-13) will get chances at the Bitterroot Bucs before hosting the Sapa/Johnsrud Class A and AA Tournament over the weekend..

On Tuesday after presstime they traveled south to Florence for a doubleheader with the Bucs, and on Thursday they’ll kick off the tournament with a home showdown with the Northern Lakes Mountaineers at 7:45 p.m.

The rest of the tournament schedule will be available at glaciertwinsbaseball.org.