Lethbridge tops Twins 6-2 at Sapa-Johnsrud

WHITEFISH — The Glacier Twins A pitching staff didn’t issue an inordinate amount of walks in Friday night’s American Legion baseball game against the Lethbridge Spitz Elks AA.

The free passes the pitchers did hand out, however, came back to haunt them.

Ryan Veneman and Forrest Kobelt combined for three walks on the mound for the Twins, and each of those three runners came around to score in a 6-2 loss to the Lethbridge Spitz Elks on Day 2 of pool play at the Sapa/Johnsrud Memorial Tournament.

Glacier, which had won 21 of 22 games before last weekend’s doubleheader against the Bitterroot Red Sox, has now lost three of its last four games.

“Our defense didn’t play well behind our pitchers,” Twins head coach Scott Murray said, referencing his team’s five errors.

“Sometimes they get that mental attitude when we’re not doing our job on defense. (Limiting walks) is a theme that we’ve covered.”

Lethbridge did most of its damage in the top of the third inning.

The Elks took advantage of four hits and a walk with three runs against Veneman, who battled through 4 1/3 innings before yielding to Kobelt.

Only two of the five runs scored on Veneman, who helped his own cause and gave the Twins an early 1-0 lead with a first-inning double to right-center field, were earned.

“I thought he had a really good outing,” Murray said.

“When he did get roughed up a little bit and we didn’t play behind him, he got up there, competed, got his head right in the game.”

“That’s the kind of ballplayer he is. He’s a leader. He doesn’t give up. He doesn’t give in. His mental makeup was good.”

Wyatt Tomalty gave the Elks their first lead, one that would last for the rest of the game, with a two-run single to left field in the third, but Glacier threatened to knot the game in the bottom half of the inning.

Tom Hellwig, one of two Twins with multiple hits, singled, stole second and scored on Derick Kastella’s double to cut the Lethbridge lead to 3-2.

With two outs and two runners in scoring position, Elks starter Chase Florendine induced a hard groundout off the bat of Tyler Murphy to end the inning without further harm.

“(Florendine) just kept us off balance,” Murray said.

“We hit a lot of fly balls, didn’t make solid contact, so a lot of credit goes to their starter.”

The Twins failed to produce many more viable threats against Florendine.

The rallies they did manage to mount were killed by self-inflicted wounds on the basepaths.

Glacier baserunners were twice doubled up on infield pop-ups, mental errors that helped stymie the offensive momentum that was often elusive for the Twins.

“Mental mistakes (while) baserunning is just not going to get it done with a team like this,” Murray said.

“If we have the physical errors, fine, but we can’t have those mental errors.”

The second occurrence came in the bottom of the sixth inning with two runners on and no outs, a situation that proved to be the final chance for the Twins.

Blake Braun pitched a perfect seventh for the Elks in relief of Florendine.

Glacier won’t have to wait long for a chance to get back on track.

The Twins return to action at 12:30 p.m. today against the Butte Miners. Glacier will also play tonight at 8 p.m. versus the Spokane Expos.

“It’s going to be a tough 10 days,” Murray said.

“We are loaded up. We’ve got this tournament, and we’re loaded up on conference games. We’re going to see where we are. We’ll come back tomorrow, and I think we’ll compete hard and get it done.”

Lethbridge 003 120 0 — 6 7 1

Glacier 101 000 0 — 2 8 5

WP: Chase Florendine LP: Ryan Veneman

LETHBRIDGE SPITZ ELKS AA — Liam Leech 1-3, Wyatt Tomalty 2-4, Raleigh Ferby 2-3, Kale Penner 1-3, Blake Thompson 0-1, Torrin Vaselenak 0-4, Ty Penner 0-3, Zach Goruk 0-2, Lukas Ankermann 0-3, Landon McHugh 1-3

GLACIER TWINS A — Greyson Bistodeau 1-4, Tom Hellwig 2-4, Ryan Veneman 1-4, Coby Clark-Dickenson 0-2, Derick Kastella 1-3, Tyler Murphy 0-1, Dan Seymour 2-2, Terek Bistodeau 1-3, Gunner Marsh 0-2, Forrest Kobelt 0-1

2B: Kale Penner. Ryan Veneman, Derick Kastella. RBI: Wyatt Tomalty 2, Raleigh Ferby, Kale Penner 2. Ryan Veneman, Derick Kastella.