Lakers hold off Glacier Twins

Twins' Krueger goes 4-for-5 with 3 RBI doubles

WHITEFISH - There are many different ways to look at what happened Wednesday night between the Glacier Twins and Kalispell Lakers American Legion baseball teams at Memorial Field.

Kalispell coach Ryan Milman wasn't very happy about his victory.

Glacier coach Jake Helber wasn't too miffed at the loss.

Any way you look at it, Kalispell beat Glacier 11-9 in the early-season Western AA showdown.

Here's the facts: Trailing 2-0 going into the second inning, the first two Kalispell batters were struck out by Glacier starting pitcher Josh Peterson. Then Peterson allowed his first hit, hit two batters, walked another and an infielder committed an error as Kalispell scored five runs and never looked back.

Two innings later, the Twins committed three infield errors and the Lakers plated two more unearned runs to take a 7-3 lead and extended it to 10-3 going into the bottom of the seventh inning.

"That second inning, we had no business giving up five runs," Helber said. "Then we booted the ball far too many times. It has been characteristic of this team and we've got to clean it up. We talked about it before the game that we are that far away (showing an inch of space between his thumb and pointer finger). We've lost three one-run ball games and now we've lost this ball game … All because we weren't there (again measuring an inch with his fingers). If we clean that up, we are in a different world."

The Western AA loss dropped the Twins to 0-3 in conference and 1-10 overall. It was the conference opener for Kalispell, which improved to .500 overall (7-7) on the year.

Even though the Twins trailed by as many as seven runs, they got back into it. They scored four runs in the seventh inning. Then left the bases loaded with one out in the eighth before plating two runs in the bottom of the ninth and leaving runners on first and second.

"We were so close," Glacier 18-year-old center fielder Jarred Krueger said. "We're almost there."

Krueger was heads above anybody as far as being the player of the game. He went 4-for-5 with three RBI doubles.

"I'm hitting in the .300s but I don't know exactly," Krueger said. "I'm getting back into it though. The last few years I've been hitting over .400 - once with the A team and last year with the AA team. I'm getting back into it and starting to get hot again."

Glacier outhit the Lakers, 14-8, but committed six errors as five pitchers combined for seven walks and five hitter batters.

Cleanup hitter Jake Fitzsimmons, a 19-year-old who is back in the Flathead Valley after playing baseball for Concordia College, was the only Laker with more than one hit. He went 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI. No. 3 hitter Danny Conners, the Lakers' shortstop, had a two-run single in the second inning.

"We've played better," Milman said. "They (the Lakers) didn't do a bad job (at the plate). They were patient at the plate but there were a few times with guys on base we'd have liked to gone a little deeper into the count so we could look at moving guys over. But for the most part, we made decent contact."

Zach Davis picked up his second victory on the mound in four days for the Lakers. He started and spread five hits and a walk over six innings while striking out six to improve to 3-1. His 17-year-old classmate John White relieved him in the seventh inning with a 10-3 lead and nearly let it slip away. He allowed eight hits, two walks and hit a batter before earning the save.

As heavy of a heart as he had, Milman couldn't deny the pleasure of a conference victory.

"To get the win against our rival - and the first conference win at that - is a big step for us," he said. "It does feel good, especially early on in the season when conference games come once a week. To ride on this win for a week is going to be much better than sitting on a loss. But we've still got a lot of work to do. Offensively we have to be a little more consistent. We need to be smart on the bases and be aggressive on the bases. We are getting late jumps on steals and when we get guys pushed over on by executing bunts, we need to put the ball in play."

Jesse Paulson pitched the best out of five Glacier pitchers. He relieved Peterson in the second inning and pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up just one hit and hitting a batter while striking out two. Two unearned runs scored on him. As the cleanup hitter, he went 2-for-5 with three RBIs and two stolen bases.

Scott Yogodzinski relieved Paulson in the sixth inning and allowed three walks, a hit batsman, a hit and two earned runs in one inning of work. B.J. Hattel pitched the seventh and allowed two walks, a hit and one earned run. Jeremy Howard pitched the final two innings, giving up two hits, a walk, a hit batsman and one earned run.

Rusty Hill, Glacier's No. 7 hitting 18-year-old right fielder, had the second-most hits in the game by going 3-for-5 with an RBI in the bottom of the ninth.

Both teams will be playing in Kalispell's Canadien Days Tournament Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Kalispell 050 202 110 - 11 8 3

Glacier 201 000 402 - 9 14 6

Zach Davis, John White (7) and Jake Fitzsimmons. Josh Peterson, Jesse Paulson (2), Scott Togodzinski (6), BJ Hattel (7), Jeremy Howard (8) and Brad Bell. W - Davis (3-1). L - Peterson (0-1). S - White (1).

KALISPELL (1-0, 7-7) - Chris Hooley 1-4, Austin Zapata 1-6, Dan Conners 1-4, Fitzsimmons 2-5, Tyler Reichoff 0-4, Sam Freudenberg 1-6, White 1-3, Davis 0-2, Weston Chambers 0-0, Tucker Hankinson 1-4.

GLACIER (0-3, 1-10) - Byron Whitcomb 1-5, Howard 1-3, Jarred Krueger 4-5, Paulson 2-5, Bell 1-4, Peterson 1-4, Casey Stratton 0-0, Rusty Hill 3-5, Riley Vawnyhuis 0-2, Yogodzinski 0-0, Hattel 0-0, Doug Cuffie 0-1, Marty Richter 0-2, Jon Cloyed 0-2.

RBIs - Kal. 7 (Conners 2, Hooley, Fitzsimmons, White, Davis, Hankinson), Gla. 9 (Krueger 3, Paulson 3, Whitcomb, Peterson, Hill). 2B - Kal. 2 (Fitzsimmons 2), Gla. 3 (Krueger 3). SB - Kal. 1 (Zapata), Gla. 3 (Paulson 2, Hattel). SAC - Kal. 1 (Chambers), Gla. 0.