Forgey, RiverDogs feast

MOSES LAKE — The Columbia Basin Junior RiverDogs wanted to send a message in their Babe Ruth Pacific Northwest Regional Tournament opener Wednesday night.

Message received — loud and clear.

The RiverDogs started strong and never let up, blowing away the Calgary Reds 9-1 in their first game of the 16-year-old tournament at Larson Field. Calgary, playing its second game of the day, looked tired and never caught up with the arm of RiverDog starter Lucas Forgey, who threw five scoreless innings and allowed just one hit.

"We wanted to make sure we matched up with one of our best pitchers," Columbia Basin coach Bill Walker said. "We felt we had a pretty good pitcher and Calgary, every year, is a very tough team."

Forgey, who finished 11-1 in his sophomore year at Naches Valley and pitched for the Rangers in this spring's 1A state championship game, brought some serious heat that the Reds simply couldn't keep up with.

Of course, it also helped that Forgey got a mountain of offensive support behind him.

"I was just very happy with how well the top of our lineup did today," Walker said. "I think the deeper we go into the tournament, our offense is definitely going to have to score some runs, because everybody's going to be out of pitching."

The RiverDogs knocked Calgary starter Adam Lentz out in third inning, piling up six runs on five hits during that time.

In the first, Blaine Myers doubled to the gap in right field and scored on a Lee Gomez single. With Adam Ranger at the plate, Basin pulled off a double steal to score Jacob Lacelle from third. Ranger then picked up Gomez with a ground ball to shortstop. Two errors in the frame also helped the RiverDogs' cause.

The top of the order was up to its same tricks an inning later. Forgey reached on a leadoff error and later scored on Eli Driessen's sacrifice fly. Gomez doubled to deep center field with two outs, scoring Lacelle and Martinez.

Basin made it 7-0 in the third, sandwiching base hits from Thomas Wilcox and Martinez around a wild pitch and stolen base. Two more runs came across in the fourth, courtesy of Wilcox's RBI single and Stockton Taylor's groundout.

The Reds' only run came in the sixth off Basin reliever Justin Haight as a pair of errors allowed Tyler Symons to trot home with two outs.

The RiverDogs continue the tournament Thursday at noon, taking on North Kitsap, a 10-0 loser to Puyallup on Wednesday.

Walker thinks his relatively veteran lineup should be prepared for whatever challenges a five- or six-game tournament throws at them.

"I think all the kids on this team have played varsity baseball with their home teams, so they have a lot of experience," he said.