Riverdogs suffer from weekend ups, downs

YAKIMA - The reasons for inconsistencies that currently plague the Columbia Basin RiverDogs baseball team is not surely known but there are some suspicions.

After this weekend's fourth-place finish at the Yakima Firecracker Classic, manager Randy Boruff believes that his team's better play on Saturday to only be followed by sluggish performances on Sunday could be easily explained.

"We' just don't know what RiverDog team is going to show up," Boruff said. "I don't know if its being tired playing three or four games and then coming out flat, which would be about energy level. We are going to try and get 12-15 hours of practice a week so we get in better shape. I don't know if that's the answer but we will assume it is and that is going to be addressed."

The RiverDogs (21-16 overall) went 2-1 in pool play, taking both games Saturday - 2-1 over the Skagit Sox and 6-1 over the Spokane Crew - after dropping a 4-0 decision on Friday at Davis High School to the Walla Walla Bears.

Against Walla Walla, the RiverDogs were held to one hit in the wood bat tournament opener.

"There a different feel there where swinging wood is different than swinging aluminum," Boruff said. "Obviously the weight of the bat is more distributed with aluminum so you have to stay inside the ball with wood, because the meat of the bat is in the middle."

Stockton Taylor (Brewster High School) earned the win on the mound against Skagit while Cody Johns (Naches Valley) won against the Crew at Yakima Valley CC, site for the last two days of play.

On Sunday, the squad dropped a 5-4 decision to the Yakima Beetles and Mitch Yada (Moses Lake HS) took the loss.

Cameron Alvarado (Moses Lake) was named to the All-Tournament team.