Columbia Basin River Dogs go 3-2 at Firecracker Invite

YAKIMA — The River Dogs finished in the middle of the pack at the Firecracker Invitational in Yakima held July 6-9.

The Columbia Basin ball club based in Ephrata found itself in a tough bracket in pool play in the wood bat tournament going up against the likes of the River City Athletics, Pepsi Pak out of Selah and NW Premier.

The team was shut out by River City 5-0 in the opener, and then got back-to-back wins over Pepsi Pak, 8-7, and Shaddle Park, 9-5. After hanging 12 runs on the board in those two ball games, the River Dogs bats went basically silent in a 6-2 to NW Premier.

But their sticks heated up in the final game of the tourney in an 8-2 win over the Thurston County Bandits.

“We got good hitting out of Zach Berryman and Duncan Favor in the tournament,” coach Randy Boruff said. “I thought relievers Joe Taylor and Nick Lopez three well — and on Sunday — Quincy Vasser original from Tonasket, but now living in Brewster tossed a 1-hitter in the win over the Bandits.”

Although they played just above .500 ball at the Invite, the River Dogs sport an impressive 28-9 record on the summer season.

“I think we are a little better that I thought we’d be at this point,” Boruff said. “We are awfully young — unlike the River City team that’s made up of mostly college kids — we only have four guys on the team who are 18 years-old.”

The River Dogs are back on the diamond in East Valley July 13-16 for the Riverhawk Invitational. The team travels to Walla Walla on July 19, and then heads to Seattle for the Chaffey Memorial Tournament July 20-23.