Lakers, Twins win at Sapa-Johnsrud
Championship Round today in Whitefish
WHITEFISH - The Kalispell Lakers and Glacier Twins Class AA American Legion baseball teams both earned their first victories Friday in the Sapa-Johnsrud 22nd Annual Memorial Tournament in Glacier Twins Stadium at Memorial Park.
The Lakers 10-runned their Western AA rivals, Lethbridge. The Twins beat Calgary, which would have entered today's Championship Round unbeaten.
The nine-team, five-day tournament wrapped up round-robin play Friday before conducting a home run derby and skills contest.
Today's Championship Round starts at 10 a.m. with Glacier playing Redmond, Ore., in the battle between No. 4 seeds. The No. 3 seeds play at 1 p.m., pitting Williston, N.D., against Chino, Calif. The consolation game starts at 4 with the Spokane Blue Devils playing Lethbridge. Calgary and the Spokane Dodgers play for the tournament title at 7.
Glacier 10, Calgary 6
Trailing 5-2 entering the bottom of the fifth inning, the Twins scored four runs apiece in the fifth and sixth innings and didn't even need to bat in the seventh to snap a 12-game losing streak.
Glacier leadoff hitter Byron Whitcomb highlighted the four-run fifth inning with an RBI single to tie the game at 5-5 before courtesy runner Michael Hader scored the go-ahead run on a two-out error.
Each team committed five errors.
Calgary catcher Blake Carruthers gave the Blues a 6-5 lead in the top of the sixth inning with a sacrifice bunt that plated Cody Cork. It was one of only two RBIs for the Blues after scoring five unearned runs.
The Twins scored one unearned run in the fifth before scoring four unearned in the sixth. With two outs, Roo Grubb reached first on an error and the flood gates opened for a single, walk, single, balk, wild pitch, passed ball and another walk.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Glacier No. 9 hitter Doug Cuffe delivered the game-winning two-run single.
"I was basically down 0-2 and didn't want to strike out and look like an idiot," Cuffe said. "I fouled off a couple pitches to stay alive the whole time at 0-2. They were all sliders and I was thinking he was going to try and sneak a fastball by. But he hung a slider and I hit it over the shortstop's head.
"It felt good. Coach (Jarod) Grubb has been working with me quite a bit on my swing."
It was Grubb's second victory as a head coach after taking the reins over from Jack Helber about three weeks ago.
"We did the same things as we always do, we just happened to get this win," Jarod Grubb said. "The beautiful thing about baseball is you can choose your battles and, right now, we're not choosing to battle for wins and losses. I told the team after the game we should feel the same right now as we did after getting beat 46-6 in two day last weekend. This was against their (Calgary's) ninth string. We've got a lot of work to do and we all know what we need to be working on. Wins and losses are misnomers. Only in Major League Baseball do wins and losses count for something. Everything up to there is all developmental stages. My job is to get these kids better for the long term. We're not interested in short-term success and we're obviously going to get worse before we get better."
The Twins outhit the Blues, 8-6, without any extra-base hits. Whitcomb and Cuffe each had two hits to lead the way. Hader, a late-season callup from the Class A program, picked up the victory on the mound. He pitched the final two innings, giving up an earned run on two hits and no walks while striking out two. Fellow rookie Brad Nielson pitched to the minimum three batters in one inning of work before being relieved by Hader. Former Kalispell Laker Weston Chambers started for the Twins and gave up three hits and a walk through four innings of work. He struck out two and allowed no earned runs.
Calgary 201 201 0 - 6 6 5
Glacier 200 044 x - 10 8 5
Travis Beatty, Brett Johnson (5), Tom Hades (6) and Blake Carruthers. Weston Chambers, Brad Nielson (5), Michael Hader (6) and Ryan Caron. W - Hader. L - Johnson.
CALGARY - Brant Tomie 1-4, Brett Bousquet 1-3, Jeff Breen 1-3, Caleb Smith 0-3, Jesse Sawyer 0-1, Shane Lannan 0-3, Cody Cork 1-3, Conner Leach 1-3, Johnson 1-3, Carruthers 0-2.
GLACIER - Byron Whitcomb 2-4, BJ Hattel 1-4, Jarred Krueger 0-2, Rusty Hill 1-3, Scott Yogodzinski 1-4, Roo Grubb 0-3, Riley VanNyhuis 1-3, Caron 0-2, Hader 0-0, Doug Cuffe 2-3.
RBIs - Cal. 2 (Johnson, Carruthers), Gla. 8 (Whitcomb 2, Cuffe 2, Krueger, Yogodzinski, VanNyhius, Caron). 2B - Cal. 1 (Bousquet), Gla. 0. SB - Cal. 3 (Bousquet 2, Breen), Gla. 3 (Hader 2, Whitcomb). SAC - Cal. 1 (Carruthers), Gla. 1 (Krueger).
Kalispell 17, Lethbridge 7
The Lakers salvaged a mercy-rule shortened victory in the tourney thanks to umpteen walks given up by inexperienced Lethbridge pitchers.
The game meant nothing between the Western AA rivals who play a conference doubleheader Wednesday in Kalispell with a berth into the State AA tournament on the line.
Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning, the Lakers walked eight times in the opening frame to plate eight runs and never looked back.
Adam Olson started for the Lakers and pitched for two innings before Sam Freudenberg relieved him and pitched the final three innings.
Each team had seven hits.
Kalispell's Stephan Malkuch hit a home run in his fourth consective game. This one was a two-run shot over the left-center field wall.
The Lakers were eliminated from the tournament's Championship Round after Friday's loss. They host the Twins in a Western AA nine-inning game Tuesday evening.
A box score was not reported.