HAMILTON – The top two seeds left little doubt they were the top two teams at the Western A District Tournament on Friday. The Glacier Twins and hosting Bitterroot Red Sox dominated to move into the bracket’s undefeated semifinal.
Glacier shut out the five-seed Mission Valley Mariners, 9-0 in a second round matchup. The Twins only led 1-0 going into the third inning, but then scored eight runs over the next three innings, while shutting out the Mariners.
The Red Sox dominated three-seed and their arch rival Bitterroot Bucs 13-2 in the last game of the evening. The Red Sox jumped out to a 5-1 lead after two innings, and the lead had grown to 13-1 by the fifth inning.
In loser-out games earlier in the day, the Kalispell Lakers stayed alive with an 8-7 nail-biter versus the Libby Loggers. And the Missoula Mavericks pulled away from a tie game late to down the Cranbrook Bandits, 7-2.
On Saturday, the Missoula Mavericks and Mission Valley Mariners throw out the first pitch in a loser-out at 10:00 AM. The Bitterroot Bucs and Kalispell Lakers follow with another loser-out at 1:00.
Then the Glacier Twins and Bitterroot Red Sox collide in a semifinal at 4:00. The winner moves into the championship and clinches a spot in the class A state tournament in Miles City next week. The top two teams in the Western A bracket will move on.
