Hader delivers for Twins in 4-1 win

By EVAN MCCULLERS

The Daily Inter Lake

With the Glacier Twins A clinging to a one-run lead in the late innings of Thursday night’s American Legion baseball game against the Kalispell Lakers A, Twins head coach Scott Murray contemplated a pitching change.

Nathan Hader didn’t allow those thoughts to become action.

“We were thinking about pulling (Hader),” Murray said.

“He said, ‘I want the ball.’ What do you say to a kid like that? Give him the ball, right?”

That’s exactly what Murray did.

Hader stayed on the mound for a total of 4 1/3 innings, finishing the job Ryan Veneman started in a 4-1 Glacier win.

“The Lakers are a great team,” Murray said. “So anytime you beat them, it’s a feather in our cap.”

The victory capped off a home-and-home sweep of the Lakers, as the Twins beat Kalispell 7-3 on Wednesday night in Whitefish. Glacier has now won 19 of their last 20 games and is 14-0 in conference play.

“Hats off to Glacier,” Lakers head coach Jesse McFarland said.

“They kept a lot of pressure on us, both offensively and defensively. They’re a dang good team, and I thought we competed with them really well.”

Similar to the previous night, the Twins jumped out to an early lead thanks to some crafty base running and a defenisve miscue by the Lakers.

In the first inning, Coby Clark-Dickenson lifted a fly ball to center field with runners on second and third. Tyler Kitch’s throw to the plate held Glacier’s Veneman at third. However, Tom Hellwig danced off second base and coaxed a return throw from the Kalispell catcher, allowing Veneman to race home.

The Twins tacked on another run in the second when Terek Bistodeau reached base on an error and advanced to third on a stolen base and another error before scoring on Tyler Murphy’s groundout.

Glacier totaled 17 hits in the game, led by three each from Veneman, Hellwig and Greyson Bistodeau. But their damage was limited by Clayton Jaques, who tossed a complete game for the Lakers.

“Clayton was phenomonal today,” McFarland said.

“He was able to control his pitch count. He pitched to contact all day. He scattered a few hits around, but he did a great job of staying in the zone. He also had two of our four hits and our RBI, so he had a fantastic night and I’m really happy for him. We just needed a little bit more. I wish we could have pulled one off for him.”

Kalispell trimmed the lead to 2-1 in the sixth inning on Jaques’ RBI single to right field, and only a mental lapse kept the Lakers from tying the game in the seventh inning.

With runners at the corners and one out, Taylor Morton chased Glacier center fielder James Sampson-Keck back to near the “380” sign in center field with a fly ball, one that was plenty deep enough to score the run.

The runner on third, however, left the base early and was forced to retreat. By the time he tagged up, it was too late.

“It’s something we work on all the time,” McFarland said.

“It was a mistake, and he knows and all of our players know very well what’s supposed to happen there, but it didn’t happen.”

Glacier added two insurance runs in the eighth inning, but they weren’t needed thanks to the work of Veneman and Hader on the mound.

Veneman struck out nine batters and threw 72 percent of his pitches for strikes in 4 2/3 innings before handing the ball to Hader, who escaped jams in the sixth and seventh and retired the Lakers in order in the eighth and ninth innings.

“Ryan came in without his best stuff, and just, he’s a battler,” Murray said.

“He was honest with us. He was like, ‘I don’t really have my best stuff.’”

Even so, coupled with Hader’s performance, it was plenty good enough to earn the win, the second in as many days for Glacier against their rivals from the south.

The Twins will look to stay hot on Saturday, when they host the Libby Loggers for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. The Lakers have the weekend off before traveling to Libby for a Monday doubleheader against the Loggers at 5 p.m.

“They made things tough on us, but in the end, we’ve got to find a way to get runners around and take advantage, get that clutch hit when we get guys in scoring position,” McFarland said.

“Our guys have also done a better job of making adjustments at the plate, and I felt like they battled really hard. But hats off to their pitchers. They did a great job.”

Glacier 110 000 020 — 4 17 0

Kalispell 000 001 000 — 1 5 3

WP: Ryan Veneman LP: Clayton Jaques

GLACIER TWINS A — Greyson Bistodeau 3-6, Ryan Veneman 3-5, Tom Hellwig 3-5, Coby Clark-Dickenson 2-4, James Sampson-Keck 0-2, Nathan Hader 1-2, Terek Bistodeau 1-5, Tyler Murphy 2-5, Derick Kastella 1-5, Dan Seymour 1-4

KALISPELL LAKERS A — Tyler Kitch 0-3, Brandon Jordan 1-4, Taylor Morton 1-3, Jonathan Craver 0-4, Cole Crosby 1-4, Nathan Vanderbeek 0-3, Clayton Jaques 2-4, Ryan McDonald 0-4, Adam Joy 0-2, Grant Marsh 0-1

2B: Tyler Murphy. RBI: Coby Clark-Dickenson 2, Tom Hellwig, Tyler Murphy. Clayton Jaques.