Lakers walk over Glacier in 10 innings

Ever heard of a walk-off walk?

It happened Tuesday night at Griffin Field in a Western AA American Legion baseball game.

Tied 6-6 in the bottom of the 10th inning Glacier pitcher B.J. Hattel wasn't able to avoid walking Kalispell's No. 9 hitter Tucker Hankinson with the bases loaded and the Lakers walked off with a 7-6 victory.

Walk-off walks have happened and both coaches were quick to point out they've seen them on ESPN.

"It's great to get the win … It's just unfortunate for those guys (Glacier) to have it end that way because they played a heck of a ball game," Kalispell coach Ryan Malmin said.

Hankinson finished with two RBIs and went 2-for-4 with a double. The Lakers' No. 8 hitter Sam Freudenburg also had two RBIs and went 2-for-5 with a double. Kalispell's No. 7 hitter Tyler Reichhoff hit an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning to put the home team ahead 6-4.

All that success from the bottom of Kalispell's batting order leads to the fact that its Nos. 1 through 4 hitters went 0-for-14 before Dan Conners hit a two-out double in the bottom of the ninth inning. Glacier coach Jack Helber intentionally walked Jake Fitzsimmons after that and a wild pitch advanced them both before Glacier relief pitcher Jon Cloyed got out of the jam with a groundout.

"It was good for our kids to get a win like that," said Malmin, whose team improved to 2-0 in Western AA and 10-8 overall. "We've been struggling a couple of times in close games. It was great to see that we kept our composure."

Kalispell pitcher Adam Olson relieved starter Zach Davis in the seventh inning and pitched four innings of one-run ball to earn his third victory of the season. He allowed only two hits, with two walks, and struck out three. He pitched a perfect ninth and 10th inning.

Hattel relieved Cloyed, who pitched two shutout innings, in the 10th and couldn't get an out. Kalispell's Chris Hooley led off by reaching on an error. Then two straight bunts back to Hattel resulted in a throw into center field and a late throw to third base. Then Hankinson walked.

"We couldn't throw a strike when we needed to, we made six throwing errors and dropped a fly ball - you're not going to win with those numbers," Helber said. "Their first six runs were unearned. We've got to come back tomorrow and practice throwing and where to go on a bunted ball that comes right back to you."

The Twins dropped to 0-4 in Western AA play and 2-14 overall. They host a Wooden Bat Tournament this weekend.

"I've heard of walk-off walks but I don't want to see them," Helber said. "That guy shouldn't have been at third base anyway - dang throwing error."

The Lakers out-hit the Twins by just one, 10-9. The Twins committed five errors and Kalispell committed three - all in the fifth inning and two of them were passed balls.

The Twins jumped on the Lakers to tie the game at 4-4 when the Lakers committed those three errors in the fifth. But Hooley and Reichhoff hit back-to-back RBI singles in the bottom of the inning to get back out in front.

"We had that bad inning where they tied it up and we jumped on the lead again after that - that was good to see from our guys," Malmin said. "Then they fought back and tied it again but our pitching staff did a great job of making them put the ball in play and our kids played great defense."

Davis, the Lakers starting pitcher, went six innings and gave up seven hits and a walk while striking out six. Only two of the five runs he gave up were earned. He also went 2-for-5 from the plate while batting in the No. 5 spot.

Jesse Paulson started on the mound for Glacier. He pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up only two earned runs on seven hits and two walks. Ryan Howard relieved him and let only one hitter get on base in 2 1/3 innings before being relieved by Cloyed.

Howard also led the Twins from the plate. He went 3-for-4 with three infield singles and two stolen bases. Byron Whitcomb and Brad Bell each added two hits and Jarred Krueger had only one hit, but it tied the game at 6-6 in the eighth inning.

Glacier 000 041 010 0 - 6 9 5

Kalispell 000 420 000 1 - 7 10 3

Jesse Paulson, Jeremy Howard (5), Jon Cloyed (8), BJ Hattel (10) and Brad Bell. Zach Davis, Adam Olson (7) and Jake Fitzsimmons. W - Olson (3-1). L - Hattel (0-3).

GLACIER (0-4, 2-14) - Byron Whitcomb 2-5, Howard 3-4, Jarred Kruger 1-5, Paulson 1-5, Bell 2-5, Josh Peterson 0-2, Riley VanNyhuis 0-2, Rusty Hill 0-4, Doug Cuffe 0-3, Cloyed 0-0, Hattel 0-1, Marty Richter 0-3.

KALISPELL (2-0, 10-8) - Josh White 0-4, Austin Zapata 0-5, Dan Conners 1-3, Jake Fitzsimmons 0-3, Zach Davis 2-5, Chris Hooley 1-5, Tyler Reichhoff 1-3, Olson 1-2, Sam Freudenburg 2-5, Tucker Hankinson 2-4.

RBIs - Gla. 4 (Paulson, Bell, Whitcomb, Krueger), Kal. 7 (Freudenburg 2, Hankinson 2, Davis, Hankinson, Hooley, Reichhoff). 2B - Gla. 1 (Bell), Kal. 3 (Freudenburg, Hankinson, Conners). SB - Gla. 4 (Howard 2, Cuffe, Paulson), Kal. 1 (Hooley).