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EPHRATA — If you'd told Randy Boruff at the beginning of the season his young club would finish third at the Senior Babe Ruth World Series, he'd have taken it.

“I knew they were a great 17-year-old team. I thought, in the end, we'd be a pretty good 18-year-old team,” he said.

The Columbia Basin River Dogs manager was right, but his team of predominately 16- 17-year-olds just didn't have an answer for the Southwest Region champions in Friday's semifinal game at Johnson-O'Brien Stadium.

Mid-County from Nederland, Texas scored more runs in the second inning than the previous three games (25 innings) combined to eliminate the host River Dogs 6-2 to advance to Saturday's championship game.

The six-run barrage erased Columbia Basin's short-lived lead and was just too much for the young River Dogs, who have just four 18-year-olds, to overcome.

“When you look at (Texas), they're a bigger, stronger team with five or six college players. We would have had to have played a perfect game,” Boruff said. “We got two runs on seven hits and were a clutch hit away from three or four more. But we just didn't get the hits when we needed them.”

Mid-County 6

Columbia Basin River Dogs 2

Columbia Basin got on the board first with a run in the top half of the second when Tristan Garland beat the throw to the plate and it looked like the second semifinal game of the night might follow suit of the previous game where Cape Cod, Mass. eliminated Charleston, Mo., 1-0 to advance to the championship game.

In fact, Columbia Basin won its quarterfinal game 1-0 and the Moses Lake River Dogs dropped a 2-0 decision in 10 innings their quarterfinal match-up.

But the early buzz with the lead was short lived. Texas loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the second. Burke Badon scored on a fielding error to tie it at 1-1 and Logan Lejeune drove in two runs with a base hit. A second Columbia Basin error kept the inning alive.

By the time the River Dogs put out the fire, the Texans had taken a 6-1 lead and that was all starter Brandon Morse, who was the MVP in the Texas 5A high school state championship, needed to take over on the mound.

“It was pretty much what it looked like. We just didn't play very well,” Zac Berryman said. “Their pitcher was pretty good and kept us off balance. I thought we played well throughout the tournament. Our defense was great, until tonight. Our pitching was solid. We just needed to start hitting.”

Pinch hitter Abel Gomez singled to lead off the seventh and pinch runner Camron Valdez scored on a fielder's choice when Joe Taylor grounded out to third base. But the key was lack of timely hits and leaving runners in scoring position.

They left two runners in the fourth, two in the fifth when Valdez singled and Jon Garza drew a walk to give them runners on first and second with no outs.

Columbia Basin also had runners aboard in the sixth when Ethan Etter had his second base hit of the night with one out. Despite seven hits total, the River Dogs left two more in the seventh when Dakota Fingar and Berryman drew back-to-back walks off Texas reliever Brock Fenn.

“Our whole season doesn't come down to one game. It's been fun,” said Etter, who came in the fourth inning when starting catcher Garland had to leave the game after getting hit with a pitch.

“Everybody's fought together. Everybody likes to compete and that makes it a really fun atmosphere to play in. We had good pitching performances like (Kaeden) Murphy, who ended his career here. I thought that was pretty cool.”

In fact Murphy's story is pretty cool and in a long line of River Dog tradition. His family moved from Quincy to Chandler, Ariz., this past spring. He played for Chandler Hamilton High School on the team's second state championship team. But when it came time for summer ball, the 18-year-old right-hander returned to the Columbia Basin.

“I wanted to finish what I started,” said Murphy, who spent five summers playing in the River Dogs system, including on the Babe Ruth World Series championship team in 2015. “I've been living with my aunt and uncle. Coming back here to for my last year with the River Dogs was important.”

Ironically enough, Murphy dominated the Pacific Southwest Region champions from Tuscon in the quarterfinals with five consecutive strikeouts (six total) and allowing just one hit in his final performance as a River Dog on Thursday night.

Mid-County 6

Cape Cod 0

Mid-County from near the Texas-Louisiana state line won it all on Saturday with a 6-0 victory over Cape Cod., Mass., in the championship game. Mid-County, which eliminated defending World Series champion Alabama two win the Southwest Region, scored three runs in the seventh to blow open a 3-0 game.