River Dogs place third at Kennewick Bandit Bash
River Dogs Baseball
KENNEWICK - Patiently waiting to return to full strength, the Columbia Basin River Dogs have been chugging through their summer schedule.
The River Dogs (13-5) finished 4-1 at the Kennewick Bandit Bash, taking third place.
"There's some bright spots," head coach Randy Boruff said. "Kind of a little better expectancy. I expect us to actually as a team be hitting the ball better."
Despite Boruff's analysis, the River Dogs did show off their power as Justin DeHoog (Ephrata) finished the tournament with eight hits and four home runs.
DeHoog now has seven home runs on the season.
Kyle Killian (Prosser) led the River Dogs with nine hits at the Bandit Bash while Drew Loera (Moses Lake) added six hits and a home run.
Columbia Basin lost its opener to the Tri-City Titans, 5-2, before winning four straight.
Hunter Boyd (Moses Lake) picked up the slack in the shorthanded rotation, throwing a two-hit shutout against the Spokane Cannons. Columbia Basin went on to beat Spokane, 8-0.
"Hunter Boyd has been improving every outing and has been commanding the strike zone and I see him as getting better every game," Boruff said.
Columbia Basin also scored wins against the Spokane North Stars, 7-4, and the Hanford Flames, 4-3.
The River Dogs punctuated their trip to the Bandit Bash with a nine-run comeback against the Kennewick Bandits.
Columbia Basin trailed 13-4 before scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the fifth. The 14-13 win was clinched by Colton Kelly's (Moses Lake) bases clearing double.
Columbia Basin figures to improve as the season moves on with the return of a handful of players who participated in the All-State Series in Yakima this weekend.
"The problem is that we just haven't had one game where everybody is there or a tournament where everybody is and we can use all our pitchers," Boruff said. "Again, this weekend we didn't get to use Junior Ledgard from Ellensburg or Cameron Walker from Naches."
The River Dogs will travel to Yakima for the Garretson Memorial Tournament, which runs June 19-22.