Delayed by high school baseball, Twins season under way

Another Glacier Twins season is now underway — only a bit delayed from its usual start in previous years.

The Twins last week began with two wins, one over Libby and one over Cranbrook, B.C., while a third game was delayed by rain in the sixth inning. Glacier will host its first home games this week on Thursday when they play Libby at Memorial Field in Whitefish.

Through the first three games of the season, Glacier Twins A head coach Kevin Slaybaugh says though the team has a long way to go, they are starting off with a lot of promise.

“Pitching is not where it needs to be yet, we walked way too many people in those first three games,” Slaybaugh recalled. “Our hitting, we’re going to be a formidable hitting team I think by the time we’re done. It’s going to be a getting to know each other, learning experience here.

“It’s going to be an exciting season for us because we do have talented and great kids,” he added.

Against Libby last week, on June 5, the score was tied 1-1 heading into the sixth inning. An error scored two runs for Glacier and AC Chilson singled to score one run. Then another error helped the Twins take a 5-1 lead. Libby responded with one run in the bottom of the inning.

From there Glacier’s offense became more potent, adding a couple more runs in the seventh, four in the eighth and topped it off with one run in the top of the ninth inning to close out the game.

In the eighth, the four-run inning was led by Dayne Tu, Micheal Miller and Chilson who all recorded RBIs. Mikey Glass started for the Twins on the pitcher’s mound, allowing no hits and no runs while striking out five over three innings. A number of pitchers came in as relief.

Against Cranbrook, Glacier had a doubleheader, but the second game ended early in the sixth inning due to a rain delay. The Twins led 8-4 in that game before the delay and the game will be finished later in the season when the two teams meet again.

In the first game against the Canadian foes, the Twins managed an 11-7 win. Cranbrook had a big five-run inning in the bottom of the second, but the Twins came back to tie it. The game was tied at six heading into the fifth inning when Glacier put up three runs to take the lead for the first time. They held on to win while scoring in each of the next two innings.

The Twins had 16 total hits with Kellen Kroger, Maddox Muller and Tristan Butts getting three hits each to lead the team.

Although the season is off to a delayed start, with several other programs already playing up to 30 games thus far, Slaybaugh believes the best is still ahead for a talented squad.

“High school baseball kind of set us back… but I kind of like where we’re at,” he said. “I can see the blue sky in our future.”

This spring was the inaugural Montana High School Association baseball season, and both Columbia Falls and Whitefish High School had programs this year. The two high schools feed into the Glacier Twins. Because of this, the Twins had to make their schedule so it began after the high school season finished in late May.

Though the Twins have quite a few players who just finished their high school season, Slaybaugh says though it is great they were on the field playing, it takes time to form the team connections needed to be successful.

“The pro of it is that they are playing baseball; the cons of it is baseball is such a team sport, it’s not just the physical play…” Slaybaugh said. “Overall it’s just going to take us a bit more time to get on the path we want to be on. But that’s OK, it means we might peak right on time.”

Some of the main returners from last season’s Glacier A team include Mikey Glass at second base and a top pitcher, Stevyn Andrachick who is a utility guy, Jake McIntyre at centerfield, Josiah Ruther at first base, Kellen Kroger who is a top pitcher and utility player, Maddox Muller at shortstop and also their lead-off hitter and pitcher, Talon Murphy as a pitcher and AC Chilson and Dayne Tu are catchers, with Chilson starting.

The Twins also have two players joining them from Eureka this season — Sam Hall and Tristan Butts who are both solid players and pitchers.

Most of the coaching staff also returns with Slaybaugh in his fourth season as the head coach. Assistant coaches Nathan Brown and Steve Andrachick will be back and this season Mason Peters will be the pitching coach.

The Twins were set to play the Bitterroot Red Sox on the road on Tuesday after press time. Then Glacier will host Libby for a doubleheader on Thursday at Memorial Field beginning at 5 p.m. and they will play Mission Valley on Saturday in Polson.