Twins pull out 4-3 victory over Red

WHITEFISH - The Glacier Twins will savor this one.

Glacier downed the Chino Red 4-3 in nine innings on Thursday night in the 26th annual Sapa-Johnsrud Memorial Tournament.

"Success like this on our yard and in front of our fans is real special," said Glacier coach Lindsay Fansler.

"That's a real good club. But we just came out loose and played the game and played it hard," he said.

The end, though, can't be described as anything other than strange.

Tied at 3 with two outs, two on and two strikes, Carl Talsma sent a pop fly sky high right above home plate.

When it finally landed, it hit square on the plate and rolled fair - with three members of the Chino Red within inches - and after Twins catcher Jeremy Nielson had scooted home from third base.

"It just got up so high out of the lights that it's a tough play. We've seen that happen at our park before. It landed right on the plate and bounced into fair territory. We'll take it," Fansler said.

"But I don't think anybody has ever seen a play like that to end the game," he added.

It took some heroics by both Kyler Blades and Kyle Knox to get the Twins to extra innings.

Blades hit a solo home run in the seventh inning to tie the score at 3 and Knox shut the Red down from the mound.

"He's been solid for us all year. He's one of those kids that works hard for us and to see him have that success and feel good about it is something that makes everybody proud," the coach said of Blades.

As for Knox, he gave up nine hits, but struck out eight and walked just two.

He also hung in during the fifth inning after getting hit on the shin by a line drive.

Knox picked up the ball, threw out the runner, then got the final out on a fly ball.

"To come out and face those guys down ... he took that one on the shin and battled through it. For him to get that win meant a lot to everybody," Fansler said.

Chino 030 000 000 - 393

Glacier 011 000 101 -480

Kyle Knox and Jeremy Neilson. Mark McMahon, Justin Arceneaux (3) and Christian Kelley. W - Knox. L - Arceneaux.

Chino - Jeff Miller 1-5, Rob Wiley 2-3, Alex Mancillas 0-2, Jerry Ramirez 0-2, Steve Collins 0-3, Kevin Lara 1-4, Michael Johnson 0-4, Taylor Valentine 1-4, Christian Kelley 2-4, Johnny Reynoso 2-4.

HR - Kevin Lara. 3B - Taylor Valentine. RBI - Lara 1, Kelley 1, Wiley 1.

Glacier - Kyler Blades 2-5, Carl Talsma 1-5, Cody Elek 1-4, Dustin VonFeldt 1-4, Geoff Streeter 1-3, Trevor Miller 1-3, Kyle Yogodzinski 0-3, Chris Gross 1-4, Jeremy Nielson 0-4.

HR - Blades. 2B - Miller. RBI - Streeter 1, Blades 1, Talsma.