Glacier Twins take third at state tournament

Maddox Muller was sterling in relief and the tying run was on third in the seventh inning Sunday, but the Glacier Twins lost 3-2 to the Laurel Dodgers at the State A Legion baseball tournament.

The host Dodgers advanced to the Montana/Alberta championship against Belgrade — the Bandits won the title game 4-2 — thanks in large part to the pitching of Maverick Hopman, who threw all seven innings for Laurel.

The Twins ended up with a 31-11 record and a third-place trophy. They were hunting their third State A title and first since 2018; they were second at the 2021 tournament.

In the fourth inning Kellen Kroger and Tristan Butts hit singles for Glacier, and Jake McIntyre’s sacrifice fly brought in Kroger with the Twins’ first run.

Michael Muller added an RBI single to bring in Butts and make it 3-2, before a fielder’s choice and fly out ended that threat.

From there Glacier managed one hit: A two-out single by McIntyre in the sixth. He was stranded.

In the Twins’ seventh inning, leadoff hitter Sam Hall reached on an error, was bunted to second and moved to third on a groundout. Then Hopman got a fly out to clinch the win for the Dodgers.

“The season didn’t turn out how we liked but winning the conference, winning the district tournament along with third at the state tournament is still pretty respectable,” coach Kevin Slaybaugh said. “I’m proud of our guys for a great season.”

Each team had seven hits; McIntyre had two for Glacier. Jace Buchanan had three hits for Laurel, including a leadoff homer in the third inning that made it 3-0.

Shortly after that Muller came on in relief and threw five strong innings, allowing three hits and a walk, striking out four and keeping the Dodgers in range.