Twins win, Mariners fall at State A Legion

POLSON — Maddox Muller drove in five runs and Matthew Mitts hit a go-ahead homer  Thursday as the Glacier Twins downed the Belgrade Bandits 9-5 in eight innings at the Montana/Alberta A Legion baseball tournament. 

The Twins,  31-11, advanced to the winner’s bracket semifinal against the Gallatin Valley Outlaws Friday at 5 p.m., at O’Malley Park. The Outlaws beat the host Mission Valley Mariners 8-2 Thursday. 

In earlier games, the Billings Cardinals eliminated the Vauxhall Spurs, 6-4, and the Lethbridge Miners ousted the Miles City Mavericks 20-4. 

The Mariners face Lethbridge at 2 p.m. Friday.  

Twins 9, Bandits 5

Mitts’ solo home run in the eighth gave Glacier the lead for good, and opened the floodgates: The next two Twins reached on errors, leading to a double steal in which Treyson Murphy scored and Dawson Juntunen was thrown out. 

Kellen Kroger followed with an RBI single, and scored on Nolan Amerman’s third hit, a triple. Amerman came in on Muller’s RBI groundout for a 9-4 lead. 

Muller —  who went seven innings on the mound, allowing seven hits, a walk and two earned runs, fanning four —  came up large in the sixth inning, when his three-run double put the Twins in front 4-3. He also drove in Glacier’s first run with an RBI single in the fourth. 

Belgrade answered that with a three-run outburst, highlighted by Brayton VanDyken’s go-ahead single that made it 2-1. Then Keenan Kraft added a game-tying RBI single in the eighth to send the game to extra innings. 

Stevyn Andrachick threw the eighth inning for Glacier, striking out two. 

Twins    000    103    05    -    9    9    5 

Bandits    000    300    11    -    5    9    4

Maddox Muller, Stevyn Andrachick (8) and  Dawson Juntunen. Keenan Kraft, Logan Zwagerman (5), Tyler Ritter (8) and Brayton VanDyken.  

GLACIER TWINS — Andrachick 0-4, Kellen Korger 2-3, Nola Amerman 3-4, Jake McIntyre 1-3, Muller 2-4, Matthew Miller 0-5, Mathew Mitts 1-4, Trent Derosa 0-3, T Murphy 0-1, Juntunen 0-3. 

BELGRADE BANDITS — Kraft 1-4, Zwagerman 0-0, Sawyer Olson 1-4, Cade Thomas 1-4, Ryas Olson 2-4, Chance Stephens 1-4, VanDyken 2-4, Gage Banks 1-4, Lawson Preasmyer 0-0, Hudson Trullinger 0-4, Andrew Hazen 0-2, Ritter 0-2. 

2B — Kroger, Muller. 3B — Amerman. HR — Mitts. RBIs — Muller 5, Kroger, Amerman, Mitts, VanDyken 2, Stephens, Trullinger. 

Outlaws 8, Mariners 2

Pitcher Marcus Holen allowed six hits and no walks while going all seven innings for Gallatin Valley, striking out five.  

The Outlaws had four of their 10 hits in a four-run second inning, also helped out by a Mariners error and a bases-loaded walk to Tristian Engbretson.  

Lucas Peterson’s RBI single capped that uprising; Holen, Cyrus Tebay and Cade Miller all had RBI singles as the gap grew to 8-0 in the fourth. Miller had three hits, and Brody Ayers had a double and scored twice. 

Dawson DuMont’s two-run double provided Mission Valley’s runs, in the sixth inning. 

Mariners    000    002    0    -    2    6    3 

Outlaws    041    300    x    -    8    10    0

Landon Shoemake, C Atkinson (5) and Holden Emerson. Marcus Holen and Michael Diefenderfer. 

MISSION VALLEY MARINERS — Cole Wadsworth 1-3, Shoemak 0-3, Dawson DuMont 1-3, Cole Haggard 1-3, Emerson 0-3, Beau DuMont 0-3, Wyatt Wadsworth 0-3, Zak Muzquiz 1-3, Aiden Gfroerer 2-2. 

GALLATIN VALLEY OUTLAWS — Aaron DeFrance 0-4, Holen 1-4, Brody Ayers 2-4, Cyrus Tebay 2-4, Cade Miller 3-3, Jaxson Iddings 1-2, Diefenderfer 0-3, Tristian Engbretsen 0-2, Lucas Peterson 1-3. 

2B — D. DuMont, Ayers. RBIs — D.DuMont 2, Holen, Tebay, Miler, Iddings, Diefenderfer, Engbretsen, Peterson.  

Miners 20, Mavericks 4

Noah Gruninger had three hits, including a double, and drove in five runs for Lethbridge while Dylan Wojtowicz and Grady Johnson drove in three runs each. 

Wojtowicz and Carter Mann each hit doubles; Mann had two hits, drew two walks and scored five times for the Miners. 

Ethan Honess threw all five innings for Lethbridge, in a game that ended early under the mercy rule. He allowed three hits, a walk and two earned runs. He fanned two. 

Pierce Hollowell had the lone RBI for Miles City (24-31). 

Cardinals 6, Spurs 4

Gavin Schwend had two hits and scored twice, Howie Martin drove in two runs and the Billings Cardinals held off Vauxhall to stay alive. 

Zach McDonald went five innings, scattering six hits and six walks with three strikeouts before giving away to Carson Steinmetz, who threw two scoreless innings for the Cardinals. Steinmetz allowed two hits and three walks and fanned two. 

A double-play attempt that went awry in the fourth inning let in two big Billings runs, making it 5-2. The Cardinals got another run in the sixth when Schwend scored on a sacrifice fly that turned into a double play. 

Eric Reiling and Landon Howg drove in runs for Vauxhaul, which ended up 30-11. Mark Vulcano had two hits, including a double. 

State A Scores

July 31-Aug. 4, Polson 

Wednesday’s Games

Belgrade Bandits 6, Miles City Mavericks 3 

Gallatin Valley Outlaws 5, Billings Cardinals 0 

Glacier Twins 4, Lethbridge Miners 2 

Mission Valley Mariners 11, Vauxhall Spurs 1 

Thursday

Lethbridge 20, Miles City 4, loser out 

Billings Cardinals 6, Lethbridge 4, loser out 

Glacier 9, Belgrade 5 

Gallatin Valley 8, Mission Valley 2 

Friday

Game 9: Billings Cardinals (57-12)  vs. Belgrade (25-14), 11:30 a.m. 

Game 10: Lethbridge (37-19) vs. Mission Valley (26-20), 2 p.m. 

Game 11: Glacier (30-11) vs. Gallatin Valley (42-22), 5 p.m. 

Saturday

Game 12: Winner 9/10 vs. Loser 11, 1 p.m.* 

Game 13: Winner 9/10 vs. Winner 11, 4 p.m.*  

(*-Avoiding rematch of earlier tournament game) 

Sunday: 

Game 14: Championship, 11 a.m. 

Game 15: If necessary, 45 minutes after first game ends