Whitefish’s Glacier Twins finally lost a game, but that didn’t stop the powerhouse American Legion baseball squad from taking home another championship.
The Twins (42-16) throttled the Cody (Wyoming) Cubs 13-0 in a game shortened to five innings on Aug. 14 to win the Northwest Class A Regional Tournament in Lewiston, Idaho, capping a season that saw Glacier win district, state and regional championships in dominating fashion.
Starting with a win over Butte’s Class AA team on July 7, the Twins won 25 consecutive games before the Bitterroot Red Sox topped Glacier 4-2 on Aug. 13. That loss snapped a streak of six straight Twins wins against the Red Sox, their district rival, a stretch that included victories for Glacier in the clinching games of the district and state tourneys.
At the regional tournament, Glacier won its first three games by at least 10 runs, including a 13-2 win versus the Cubs on Aug. 12. In the tournament title game, the Twins were never threatened, scoring three times in the top of the first inning and riding another dominant performance by starting pitcher Coby Clark-Dickenson. The Glacier starter allowed just one hit in four innings of work, striking out five, while Ryan Veneman (3-for-4, 2 RBIs) and Terek Bistodeau (2-for-3, 3 RBIs) provided the offense.
The Twins were carried by a high-powered offense during much of the season, finishing the year with a .372 batting average as a team and averaging 8.8 runs per game. Clark-Dickenson led the club with a .463 average and 67 RBIs, with Bistodeau (.433), Veneman (.425), Tom Hellwig (.382) and Jack Schwaiger (.379) also posting gaudy numbers. On the mound, Clark-Dickenson went 11-1 with a 2.33 ERA in 65 2/3 innings.