River Dogs win Wyoming American Legion tournament

GILLETTE, Wyo. — Griffey Halle, Justin DeHoog and Glenn Gosse accounted for eight of the River Dogs’ nine hits. Hunter Boyd went the distance on the mound, striking out 11, and Columbia Basin slammed the door on the hometown Gillette Roughriders to win the Hladky Memorial Tournament 7-1 on Sunday.

The Roughriders (39-19 overall) were trying to win the tournament for the second consecutive year, but didn’t have an answer for the big man from Moses Lake. Boyd, who is coming off a strong season for Yakima Valley Community College, allowed just the one run, scattered five hits and did not walk a batter in seven innings of work.

“Baseball is about three things — good pitching, good defense and clutch hitting. We got good pitching the whole trip and we actually hit the ball pretty well,” said River Dogs coach Randy Boruff, whose team went 5-0 at the Hladky Memorial and 7-0 on the Wyoming swing. “The run Hunter gave up was unearned, so he was exceptional today. Gillette loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth inning. He got a strikeout, then a lazy fly ball to left field and another strikeout to get out of inning. That was a big deal.”

The River Dogs (20-6) offense was a big deal all week. They ripped into some pretty good Roughrider pitching with another hitting showcase. Halle went 3-for-4 with three RBI, including a double and a solo shot in the sixth inning. DeHoog also doubled and drove in three runs with a 3-4 championship day at the plate. Gosse added two hits to the mix, including a triple, for the River Dogs, who didn’t score their first run until the fourth inning.

“Gillette tied the game in the sixth inning, but Halle had the home run to give us the lead back,” Boruff said. “Gosse got a triple right after that and DeHoog drove in a run with a base hit.”

Columbia Basin closed it out with back-to-back doubles by Halle and DeHoog to sweep through a quality tournament field with teams from Colorado, Wyoming, and North Dakota.

“We need to shore up our defense, but overall I was pleased with the trip,” Boruff said. “We had exceptionally pitching. We hit the ball well against some quality pitching. Yeah, I’d give us an A-minus for the effort.”

Boyd went the distance in the championship game. Logan Moss threw a three-inning perfect game against Laramie, Wyo,, and Zach Askin of Warden struck out 12 in the tournament opener.

River Dogs 6, Premier West (Denver) 3

Cooper Larsen hit a home run and finished with the win on the mound to lead the River Dogs in their quarterfinal game.

Columbia Basin led 3-1 going into the bottom of the six. Premier West scored two runs in the inning to tie it 3-3. The River Dogs responded with three runs in the top half of the seventh to advance to the semifinals.

Larsen pitched six solid innings and the River Dogs continued their dominance at the plate, scoring six runs with 12 hits.

“We left some people on, so we didn’t get the clutch hits,” Boruff said. “But we’re playing well.”

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