River Dogs silence Cannons to start Washington Baseball Open

EPHRATA - Behind a strong outing from pitcher Junior Ledgard and an explosive second inning, the Columbia Basin River Dogs were able to begin the Washington Baseball Open in the win column.

Ledgard pitched a complete game and the River Dogs pounced on defensive mistakes by the Seattle Cannons to put together an eight-run second inning.

Columbia Basin went on to win 9-1 in five innings.

The abbreviated game was a welcome relief for a River Dogs team that just got done spending a week west of the Cascades.

"You always play against the game of baseball," head coach Randy Boruff said. "It's not your opponent. When you go out there pitching-wise you want to throw strikes, you want to throw strikes and get ahead of hitters.

"You want to make plays and you want to hold runners close. We had a couple pickoffs. We did those things nice."

After leaving two runners stranded in the first inning, Columbia Basin strung together timely hits and defensive blunders by the Cannons to score eight runs in the second frame.

The rally started after a walk and stolen base by Chandler Gribble. Next up, Tyrel Panter was able to beat out a chopper up the middle, which put runners on the corners.

A defensive miscommunication by the Cannons caused a throw attempting to catch Panter stealing to sail into center field, scoring Gribble.

"We delay steal, we steal, we run and we utilize our speed," Boruff said. "We also utilize some mistakes of other teams."

Colton Kelly followed with a two-run single after the Cannons had loaded the bases. A RBI single by Dylan Derr stretched the River Dogs' lead to 4-0.

Kelly was able to later score from third after the Cannons attempted to catch a runner stealing second to push the lead to 5-0.

After loading the bases once again, Gribble hit a bloop single into center field that scored two. The River Dogs' were able to score one more run to give the team an 8-0 lead before the inning mercifully ended on a Timbo Taylor strikeout.

Cameron Walker continued the scoring for the River Dogs in the fourth inning, driving in Taylor who had previously doubled, to give Columbia Basin an 9-0 advantage.

Ledgard was dominant from the hill, only allowing one run in five innings of work against Seattle who Boruff thought was a pretty good offensive team.

"I thought they swung it pretty good. You can tell a team that swings it," he said. "That game could've been just as easily been 9-3, 9-4 if we don't make some plays."

The River Dogs will continue their run through the Washington Baseball Open Friday at 3 p.m. against Missoula.

"Good start," Boruff said. "We'd like to be playing Sunday for first or second. That would be nice."