Glacier Twins reload for busy June, July
In olden times, and we’re referring in this case to last June, the American Legion baseball Glacier Twins would have at least a dozen games under their belt by now.
This year they have one, a 12-2 win over the Libby Loggers early this week. They open Western A play with a doubleheader at Cranbrook, Alberta on Saturday.
The advent of baseball as a Montana High School Association-sanctioned sport brought in turn high school teams to both Whitefish and Columbia Falls. Those two schools feed the Twins, a perennially strong Class A program that went 34-12 in 2022.
Eleven players return from that team, including one who’s at college in Canada right now: Stevyn Andrachick.
“We’ve got good talent, we have a lot of guys back,” coach Kevin Slaybaugh said. “But we haven’t been together very long. It’s just a matter of how long it takes for us to jell together as a team. But we should be pretty good.”
When Andrachick gets back, around June 22 according to Slaybaugh, he’ll join a team that could be set on the infield and still mixing and matching in the outfield.
For example, Maddux Miller and Tristan Butts have shared shortstop responsibilities, “and both are doing a real nice job,” Slaybaugh said.
Mikey Glass, who threw four shutout innings in the opener against Libby, has second base nailed down; Butts has also been at solid third base and Josiah Ruther is penciled in to start at first.
Ruther and Glass are “veterans”; Butts, along with pitcher/left fielder Sam Hall, have come over from Eureka to play this summer.
Hall deepens a pitching staff that includes Glass and fellow returnees Kellen Kroger and Talon Murphy. Muller is in that mix as well.
Kroger and Dayne Tu also can play third; Hall is a backup for first. Kroger is in center field and Tu is in right, but there is plenty of depth with utility men Michael Miller, Nolan Amerman and Colin Venezio.
That helps cover the early absences of Murphy, who’s fighting a wrist injury, and center fielder Jake McIntyre, who is dealing with a sore back.
Venezio is also the backup catcher behind AC Chilson, another key returnee from last season; young pitcher Matthew Mitts is another addition that could prove useful because the games will add up in a hurry.
After Cranbrook the Twins play twice at the Bitterroot Red Sox Tuesday; their first home games are a doubleheader with Libby next Thursday.
In all they’ll get in 20 conference games along with three tournaments before the Western A tournament at Polson July 20-23.
The Twins won 15 of 16 Western A games a year ago, and it’s hard to imagine they’ll fall far in 2023 — even if, for example, the Kalispell A Lakers have played 27 more games already (and won 24).