Mavs topple Twins
WHITEFISH — Eight hits, no errors, one four-run inning — and it just wasn’t enough to carry the Class AA Glacier Twins past the Missoula Mavericks on Saturday.
The Mavericks (33-2 overall and 2-1 league) scored four first inning runs and came away with an 11-5 victory over the Twins in a 9-inning contest at Memorial Field.
“That’s tough,” said Glacier coach Lindsay Fansler of the first inning.
“They’re a good-hitting ballclub and they’re fundamentally sound. So to spot them a lead like that ... it’s tough to climb out of,” he said.
“We hit some balls at people early in the game and left some runners on. We finally broke through with runners on (in the 8th) with (Dustin) VonFeldt’s double. Too little, too late,” Fansler said.
“As a team, we swung the bats pretty well. We had eight hits. We just couldn’t come up with that timely hit — and that was kind of the story of the weekend.
“The kids played hard ... no errors. It was a clean game. But we gave up some walks and they got the hits with guys on,” he said.
That was never more true than in that first inning.
The Mavericks had just two hits — but they also had three walks and all three scored.
The Twins looked like they would bounce back fast.
The first two runners went down, but Glacier followed with a two-out rally capped by Cody Hill’s RBI double.
A strikeout finished that rally and the Twins didn’t threaten again offensively until they loaded the bases in the seventh. They failed to score any of those runners.
The breakthrough finally came in the eighth on Geoff Streeter’s one-out single to left.
Hill followed with a fielder’s choice that resulted in the game’s only error.
Missoula’s first baseman fielded Hill’s grounder and tried to throw Streeter out at second. The ball got loose and both runners were safe.
One walk and one out later, the bases were loaded for VonFeldt. He sent an 0-1 pitch to the left field fence, then scored himself on Carl Talsma’s single to left center.
Missoula didn’t get out of the inning until Glacier had batted around — but Mavs shortstop Kendal Maier finally threw out Glacier’s Jeremy Nielson at first.
The Twins (12-19 and 0-6) head to Wenatchee, Wash. on Thursday for the Apple Valley Packer tournament.
Missoula 402 000 320 — 11 10 1
Glacier 100 000 040 — 5 8 0
Shawn McArthur, Michael Melugin and Robby King. Cody Hill, Zach Massen (5), Trevor Miller (7) and Jeremy Nielson.
Missoula — Ben Roberts 0-5, Brody Miller 1-3, Collin LaPorte 0-1, Kendal Maier 1-4, Sean Dwyer 1-3, Steven DeYoung 2-4, Riley King 3-4, Sam Sopko 1-3, Nate Jewett 0-5, Robbie King 1-4.
2B — Maier, Riley King. RBI — DeYoung 1, Sopko 2, Riley King 3, Robbie King 1.
Glacier — Kyler Blades 0-2, Jeremy Nielson 0-4, Wade Martinson 1-5, Kyle Knox 1-3, Geoff Streeter 1-2, Cody Hill 1-5, Kyle Yogodzinski 0-1, Zach Massen 1-1, Trevor Miller 1-4, Dustin VonFeldt 1-4, Carl Talsma 1-3.
2B — Hill, VonFeldt. RBI — Hill 1, VonFeldt 3, Talsma 1.