BASEBALL: Twins start state tourney with win

GREAT FALLS — Jonny Sapa spun eight stellar innings, James Sampson-Keck went 4 for 5 and the Glacier Twins opened the Montana/Alberta State A tournament by routing the Laurel Dodgers 8-2 at Centene Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

Glacier (37-22) scored all eight of its runs in the first three innings, racing out to a 5-0 lead before the Dodgers dented the scoreboard against Sapa.

The Twins will play Livingston in the second round of the eight-team, double-elimination tournament today at 4 p.m. The Braves won the Southern District and blasted the Great Falls Chargers 13-0 on Thursday.

The first three batters Glacier sent to the plate on Thursday all scored, with Colten Parker, Tristin Steinwand and Sampson-Keck rattling off three straight singles. An error followed, then two more base hits to put the Twins in front 3-0.

Glacier’s eight runs in the first three frames came on 11 hits, all singles. Sampson-Keck singled in each inning and scored runs in the first and second.

The early offense was plenty for Sapa, who hit a minor speed bump in the third but otherwise tiptoed artfully through the Dodgers lineup. Laurel cobbled together 10 singles against the right-hander but he managed to surrender just the two runs (one earned) and struck out three in a 100-pitch outing.

Greyson Bistodeau pitched a perfect ninth to close out the win.

Parker, Steinwand and Ryan Veneman all had two hits for the Twins. Vinny Smith drove in two runs and Parker, Steinwand, Sampson-Keck and Jesse Walburn added single RBIs.

Mason O’Donnell was 4 for 5 and Carson Hoke 3 for 5 to pace Laurel.

The Dodgers will take on Great Falls in a loser-out game today at 10 a.m.

Laurel 002 000 000 — 2 10 5

Glacier 323 000 00x — 8 14 3

Carson West, Chase Feller (4), Josh Anderson (8) and Mason O’Donnell. Jonny Sapa, Greyson Bistodeau (9) and Tyler Murphy. W — Sapa. L — West.

LAUREL — Carson Hoke 3-5, O’Donnell 4-5, Trevor Meier 0-5, Dawson Cortese 1-4, Kanyin Moran 0-4, Kyle Cannon 0-2, West 1-3, Braden McIlvain 0-3, Feller 1-3, Deklan Harper 0-4.

GLACIER — Colten Parker 2-5, Tristin Steinwand 2-5, James Sampson-Keck 4-5, Vinny Smith 1-5, Jesse Walburn 1-4, Max Smyley 1-2, A.J. Wetsch 1-4, Ryan Veneman 2-4, Murphy 0-4.

RBIs — O’Donnell; Smith 2, Parker, Steinwand, Sampson-Keck, Walburn.

Mavs pull away from Lakers at State AA tourney

MISSOULA — The top-seeded Missoula Mavericks scored 12 unanswered runs over the final five innings to hammer the Kalispell Lakers 12-2 in the second round of the Montana/Alberta State AA tournament Thursday night at Lindborg-Cregg Field.

The game ended in the seventh inning by virtue of the 10-run rule.

Coming off a wild win in the first round, Kalispell scored single runs in the first two innings to surge in front but the Mavs put up four runs in the third inning and never looked back. Missoula pulled away with five runs in the sixth and ended it with three more in the seventh.

“The score really doesn’t indicate the effort that Dawson Smith had on the mound today,” Lakers coach Ryan Malmin said. “He gave us opportunities to make plays and defensively we didn’t do that.”

The Lakers were charged with five errors in the loss. Smith pitched into the sixth inning and only three of the six runs he allowed were earned.

“Baseball’s a game of momentum,” Malmin continued. “After we were up 2-0 and had the momentum we had a poor inning. Rather that riding the process we let things get away from us a little bit and obviously we can’t do that in a state tournament game.”

The Lakers notched six hits in the loss, including a Tiler Whiteaker double. Patrick O’Connell collected Kalispell’s lone RBI.

Jakob Bierig went 3 for 3 to pace a 15-hit Mavs attack. Ryan McHugh doubled twice.

The Lakers continue the double-elimination tournament with a loser-out game today at 4 p.m. against the Billings Royals.

Missoula moves on to play the Billings Scarlets, the tournament’s only other undefeated team, today at 7 p.m.

Kalispell 110 000 0 — 2 6 5

Missoula 004 005 3 — 12 15 1

Dawson Smith, Tiler Whiteaker (6) and Andrew Schleusner. Austin Bohnsack, Ricky Stevens (6) and Spencer Schock. W — Bohnsack. L — Smith.

KALISPELL — Whiteaker 1-3, Jake Halland 0-2, Patrick O’Connell 1-3, Schleusner 1-3, Leif Ericksen 1-2, Spencer Pisk 1-3, Haydn Schlepp 0-0, Micah Benson 0-2, Jonas Nyman 1-1, Logan DeCock 0-1, Jayson Combs 0-3.

MISSOULA — Nick Yovetich 2-4, Jakob Bierig 3-3, Jonathon Mitchell 2-5, Hunter Paulson 2-4, Schock 2-2, Zanon Fulbright 1-4, Walker Kay 1-3, Davis Walker 0-0, Tyler Jewett 0-1, Ryan McHugh 2-3, James Martin 0-3.

2B — Whiteaker; McHugh 2, Mitchell, Schock, Yovetich. RBIs — O’Connell; Mitchell 4, Schock 3, Yovetich 2, Bierig, Paulson.