Twins down Mariners to claim West A District title
MISSOULA — To get a second straight West A District tournament title, the Glacier Twins went old and new.
The “old” was reliever George Robbins, who for the second straight year closed out the championship win in sidewinding relief, this time in a 9-4 decision over Mission Valley at Lindborg-Cregg Field.
The new (and borrowed) was Danny Dunn, an 18-year-old from Eureka who provided sterling defense at catcher a year after playing travel ball on a team from Spokane.
The rest — Zach Veneman getting freed up to pitch and play third, for example — seemed to fall into place. The Twins take a 48-14 record into the State A tournament that begins Thursday in Havre. It was announced Saturday they’ll play at 4 p.m., most likely against Great Falls.
Glacier went 3-0 in Missoula, starting with a 13-12 win over LIbby in which the Loggers scored four times in the seventh before the Twins went to Veneman to close the door.
“We were supposed to save him,” Dunn noted. “I guess our pitching wasn’t there that night, so Zach came in and threw 12 out of 13 (pitches) for strikes and shut them down.”
“We had them down and they kind of came back on us,” Glacier coach Kevin Slaybaugh added. “Scrappy bunch. Of course, that’s this whole league.”
The Twins' other two tournament wins came against Mission Valley, starting with a hard-fought 7-3 victory in Saturday’s winner’s semifinal. Veneman started and got the win, but the Twins had to answer two Mariners runs in the fifth inning with four of their own.
Sunday the fourth was the pivot point: After the Mariners’ Trevor Lake drew a bases-loaded walk off Jacob Polumbus, Xavier Fisher hit a 2-run single that knotted the game at 3-all.
Glacier responded with five runs in its half of the inning.
“This game was even better,” Dunn said. “Our bats came alive a lot more and the defense was better.”
Stevyn Andrachick was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and Mikey Glass, Robbins and Dunn all singled against Alex Muzquiz, before Hayden Meehan drew a bases-loaded walk off reliever Espn Fisher.
Suddenly the Twins led 6-3, and when No. 9 hitter Taylor Bryan poked a 2-run single to right it was 8-3.
Dunn added a single in the sixth that pushed Robbins to third, and Robbins then scored on Meehan’s sacrifice fly.
A hit by pitch and two walks set up Glacier’s 3-run third inning as well. Bryan added an RBI single in that frame.
“I have to say this: The bottom of our lineup was tremendous this weekend,” Slaybaugh said of a group — Robbins, Dunn, Meehan and Bryan — that hit .388 at Districts.. “We seemed like we struggled early and the bottom of our lineup got us going. Those guys really played really well.”
They helped offset the occasional crooked number by their opponents.
“If they’d taken the lead I might have been more worried,” Dunn said of the Mariners. “I was confident in our bats and I knew our defense would be there the rest of the game.”
Polumbus gave up four hits and three walks in his four innings; Robbins threw three innings, allowing one unearned run in the seventh. He fanned three.
The Mariners, who ousted Missoula 9-4 to get back into the championship, take a 35-17 into the State A as the West’s No. 2 seed. They’ll play at 7 p.m. Thursday against host Havre.
Mariners 000 300 1 - 4 5 2
Twins 003 501 x - 9 9 1
Alex Muzquiz, Espn Fisher (4) and EFisher, Daniel Kelsch (4). Jacob Polumbus, George Robbins (5) and Danny Dunn.
MISSION VALLEY MARINERS — Xavier Fisher 2-3, Muzquiz 0-4, Dawson Dumont 1-4, EFisher 0-2, Eric Dolence 1-4, Dylan Davis 0-3, Ethan McCauley 1-2, Kelsch 0-1, Dariene Williams 0-2, Travor Lake 0-2.
GLACIER TWINS — Mason Peters 0-3, Stevyn Andrachick 0-2. Zach Veneman 1-2, Jacob Polumbus 0-2, Mikey Glass 1-3, Robbins 2-3, Dunn 2-3, Hayden Meehan 0-2, Taylor Bryan 3-4.
RBI — XFisher 2, Dolence, Bryan 3, Glass 2, Meehan 2, Robbins.