Western A districts: Twins rally, beat Bandits
Hayden Meehan delivers a pitch in the seventh inning of the Glacier Twins win over Cranbrook in the American Legion West A District Tournament in Kalispell on Thursday, July 21. (Jeremy Weber/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier Twins first baseman Stevyn Andrachick puts the tag on Cranbrook runner Ryan White to complete a pickoff play at the Western A district tournament in Kalispell on Thursday, July 21. (Jeremy Weber/Daily Inter Lake)
Glacier runner Owen Shilling makes a diving attempt to score in the Twins 13-3 win over Cranbrook in the American Legion West A District Tournament in Kalispell on Thursday, July 21. (Jeremy Weber/Daily Inter Lake)
The Glacier Twins beat the Cranbrook Bandits 11-3 in comeback fashion Thursday afternoon at Griffin Field to kick off round one of the Western A District tournament.
The Twins trailed 3-2 entering the fifth inning when they exploded for a nine run inning to secure the win.
Kellen Kroger took the bump for Glacier and went three innings allowing two runs. Owen Relkoff took the hill for Cranbrook going 4⅓ innings and allowing nine runs despite only two of them being earned.
Hayden Meehan pitched three scoreless innings in relief for the Twins and Jake McIntyre pitched a 1-2-3 scoreless seventh for Glacier, overpowering the three batters he faced to secure the win.
"I felt like my fastball was moving way harder than it's been and my curveball was working perfectly fine," said McIntyre, who only needed six pitches to get through the final inning.
The Twins had their ups and downs early but bounced back with a huge bottom of the fifth, batting through the order and scoring nine runs.
A leadoff walk and Cranbrook error put runners on first and second when Meehan doubled to right field to drive in a run. Kroger then picked up an RBI single to right, giving Glacier a 4-3 lead. The rally continued with Glacier tacking on seven more runs in the inning pushing the score to 11-3.
The big inning was highlighted by a Maddox Muller sac fly to deep center, an RBI double to right by Chilson, Andrachick drove in two on a triple, and RBI doubles from Mikey Glass and Mason Peters blew things open.
"We're never out of a game, that's just our personality, it's who we are, " head coach Kevin Slaybaugh said in reference to the comeback victory adding that opposing teams throw their best arms in the tournament so "it gets to be a bit of a grind early."
That "never out of it" mentality paid off big for Glacier who closed things out by not allowing Cranbrook to score after the third inning.
Glacier looks to keep the momentum going Friday afternoon at Griffin Field when they take on the Kalispell Lakers or Bitterroot Bucs in their semifinal matchup at 4:30 p.m.
Cranbrook 1020000—3 5 3
Glacier 020 090 0x—11 11 1
Kellen Kroger, Meehan (4), McIntyre (7), Tu, Chilson. Owen Relkoff, Strachen (5), Butler (6), Pighin.
GLACIER— Andrachick 2-3, Peters 1-4, Glass 1-4, Meehan 2-4, Kroger 1-4, McIntyre 0-3, Ruther 0-0, Muller 0-1, Shilling 2-4, Tu 0-1, Chilson 2-2.
CRANBROOK—Tanner 1-4, White 1-1, Clark 1-2, Butler 2-3, Harris 0-2, Dobriel 1-3, Pighin 0-3, Johnson 0-3, Florentine 0-3
2B—Chilson, Glass, Meehan, Peters. 3B— Andrachick, RBI—Andrachick 2, Butler, Clark, Glass, Kroger, Meehan, Muller, Peters, Shilling.