Columbia Basin holds on to beat Tucson
EPHRATA – The Columbia Basin River Dogs got past a scrappy Tucson, Ariz. club 1-0 and dodged a few bullets along the way in a do-or-die quarterfinal win in Ephrata last night.
“That’s our club – no bitter expectancy – we live by the sword and die by the sword – that’s the way we’ve played all year,” coach Randy Boruff said. “We have won 39 ball games this year – won four in a row now and over the last three years are 14-3 in World Series play.”
Tucson threatened on more than one occasion in the contest; loading the bases three times, and had a runner thrown out at the plate.
The first instance was in the top of the first inning when Kaden Murphy gave up a single and two walks to start the ball game. That brought Boruff to the mound for some encouraging words for his starter.
“I told him his career – he’s an 18-year-old kid – as a River Dog is about to come to an end – you’ve got this guy to deal with and if you don’t get it done, I’m going to bring someone else in so you better get it figured out. He did and then he struck out the next five guys.”
Columbia Basin posted the only run of the game in the home half of the third when Duncan Favor scored on an error by Tucson’s right fielder.
Three walks issued by Murphy in the top of the fifth loaded the bags for the second time in the contest. But he got Wriggs McGuire to pop up to Joe Taylor at short to end the threat.
Arizona appeared to have tied the game on a controversial play at the plate in the top of the sixth. But the call went in favor of the River Dogs as the runner was called out to thwart another Tucson scoring opportunity.
“That was a real heads up play by Nick Lopez. He was able to make the throw – grabbing the ball quickly and throwing home,” Boruff said – “And a great block at the plate by Tristan Garland – that’s what it takes to win a close ball game.”
The River Dogs dodged one last bullet in the top of the 7th when the Pacific Northwest Regional Champion loaded the bases for a third time with two out. Taylor, who relieved McLean in the top of the frame after the mandatory 105 pitch count, served up two ground outs but then proceeded to give up three consecutive singles. He got out of the jamb by getting Keegan Graf to ground out to Zach Berryman at short to end the game.
“We bring Taylor in because he doesn’t get rattled,” Boruff said. “He has three saves and that’s why we put him out there.”
Murphy threw six innings of one-hit ball, fanned six and walked six along the way to picking up the win. Taylor got the save.
The win puts the World Series host team and last year’s runner-up in a semifinal contest against American Division No. 1 seed Nederland, Texas tonight at 8 p.m. The winner moves on to the championship game Saturday.
“We’ve been to the semifinals the last three years – some of these teams haven’t been there, so we’ll rely on our experience,” Boruff said. “We’ve had a couple kids – Murphy and Lopez who were on the 2015 championship team and our coaching staff has been together for quite a while now. We’ve played Cape Cod and Missouri and we’re going up against Texas tonight. If we don’t win it – who ever does – they will have had to go through us to do it.”