Othello's Arcenio Martinez comes up big for the Riverdogs
Rodney Harwood/Hagadone Newspaper Group - Columbia Basin River Dog first baseman Abel Gomez of Othello takes a cut at a ball during his at-bat May 8 against the Columbia Basin Rockhounds.
EPHRATA — The Columbia Basin River Dogs opened the bottom half of the sixth inning with three straight hits, including a double by Joe Taylor and a 2-RBI single by Arcenio Martinez to blow the game open in Thursday night’s 13-2 victory over the Columbia Basin Rockhounds Senior Babe Ruth League action in Ephrata.
It’s early yet and both programs are still sorting things out, but they are starting to find the range.
“We have decent defense and some pretty good pitching. We’re starting to hit the ball a little better,” said River Dogs manager Randy Boruff, whose team played in the 2016 Senior Babe Ruth League World Series championship game. “Last year we had Hunter Boyd and the year before that we had Cam Walker, so we’ve had a real big arm on the mound the last two years in a row. But this year we have a pitching staff of six guys. We might be better balanced than we were last year. By the time July rolls around, we should be pretty good.”
The River Dogs (7-3) had two big innings on Thursday, taking a 7-0 lead with a four-run third and added four more in the bottom half of the sixth.
“We only have four guys returning from last year’s team, so we’re still getting used to playing with each other,” said Nic Lopez of Quincy, who played on the River Dogs national championship team in 2015. “The pitching staff is throwing well, but it’s going to have to be hitting and defense. Coach has already established that, so we’ll see what happens.”
Martinez, a former Othello Husky, scored three times and had two hits, including the 2-RBI single. Abel Gomez also had two hits.
The Rockhounds (5-6) dropped below .500 with the loss, but manager Tracy Robertson said he likes what he sees.
“We haven’t played a whole lot of games with each other so far this season. This is only our second weekend together, so we’re still moving guys around and trying to figure out some things,” Robertson said. “We were missing some key guys tonight, but I like what I see so far. Our goal is to win the state championship and get to the Babe Ruth World Series.”
The Rockhounds scored two runs in the sixth inning to cut into the lead, but the River Dogs led from start-to-finish.
Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for Hagadone Newspaper Group and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com.