Mariners B approach at the plate pushes Glacier Twins

POLSON — The Mariners B team showed lots of patience at the plate, drawing nine walks in their game against the Class A Glacier Twins, but dropped the extra-innings contest 8-7 last Saturday.

POLSON — The Mariners B team showed lots of patience at the plate, drawing nine walks in their game against the Class A Glacier Twins, but dropped the extra-innings contest 8-7 last Saturday.

“I was really impressed with our approach at the plate,” manager Chris Brown said. “We did a great job not expanding the zone. That’s definitely exciting getting baserunners every inning. While we left some guys on base, as these guys mature, we’re gonna start driving those guys home and score more runs. It was good every inning to have a chance to bring those runs home.”

Mission Valley took the early lead after Mike Bournstein doubled to bring home Ryan Pablo. They added another run in the bottom of the second after Bradley Cannon attempted to steal second base, opening the line to home plate for Jared Young.

Glacier answered back with a run of their own in the top of third but Mission Valley scored three in the bottom of the frame. David Cleveland singled to bring home Pablo, then Glacier pitching walked Cannon and Quinn Harlen with the bases loaded to plate two more runs. That gave Mission Valley a 5-1 lead before Glacier plated three runs off four hits in the top of the fourth.

Mission Valley scored another run in the bottom of the fifth and Cleveland hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to give the Mariners a 7-4 lead. However Glacier tied things up in the top of the seventh in a two-hit, three-run, two-error inning. That’s how the score would stay into extra innings until the Twins scored the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth.

Cleveland finished the game 3-for-5 with a triple and two RBIs while Bournstein was 1-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

Chris Drebes went seven innings for the Mariners, while David Cleveland came in for the final two innings and struck out three. Brown said he was impressed with the way Drebes has taken to the starting pitching role so far this season.

“I couldn’t have been happier with how the guys did,” Brown said. “This is the first year that we’ve really called upon Chris to pitch every weekend and David came in a did a good job shutting them down.”

Brown said that he was happy with the progress his team made last weekend, showing lots of offensive production two weeks after the bats had gone quiet against Kalispell.

“I was impressed with the way the kids were fired up and good to go,” he said. “There was a big crowd there and the kids definitely showed they’re putting the time in working.”

GLACIER 8, MV B 7

G - 001 - 300 - 301 - 8

M - 113 - 011 - 000 - 7

Glacier - 10 hits, 3 errors. MV - 6 hits, 6 errors

Mariners batting - Ryan Pablo 1-2, Mike Bournstein 1-4, Chris Drebes 0-3, Alex Killian 0-2, David Cleveland 3-5, Jared Young 0-2, Brad Cannon 0-0, Quinn Harlen 0-1, JT Probst 0-2, Jacob Herrod 0-3, Nick Gillingham 1-2, Aaron Rassmussen 0-3, Ian Ricketts 0-2.

3B - Cleveland. 2B - Bournstein. RBIs - Bournstein, Cleveland 2, Cannon, Harlen. M Pitching - Drebes (7 IP, 7K), Cleveland (2 IP, 3K)