Chiefs baseball taking summer success to new level in high school

Rodney Harwood

| March 20, 2018 1:00 AM

The Moses Lake Chiefs ushered in the Donnie Lindgren era of Chiefs baseball over the weekend, winning a couple of non-league games.

The shear energy of Lindgren has as he cranks the windmill, running three-quarters down the baseline with runners he’s waving around for the score brings a smile to my face. I remember the battle cry of the Senior Babe Ruth World Series last summer, “Get dirty, have fun.” Donnie has carried that same energy over to his first varsity season with Moses Lake.

“I don’t know if I do it for the players or for myself as way of staying in the game,” he said. “The one thing I’ve learned as I’ve matured as a coach is the kids have to have fun. It’s a baseball game, not a baseball job.

“In order to not stress them out, I have to have fun too. But I told them, I’m ready to go all the time. We’re going to work our tails off in practice and they’re going to learn a lot of everyday fundamentals because that’s what wins baseball games. The biggest thing people are going to notice is the amount of energy we’re going to bring to the ballpark everyday.”

The former Big Bend Community College skipper takes over the program from Quintz Whitaker (2013-17), who posted a 77-78 record during his seven-year tenure as the Chiefs head coach. Moses Lake finished fourth in the Columbia Basin Big Nine last season.

I remember a conversation I had with Ryan Doumit last summer. Ryan spent 10 years in the Bigs and played back in the day when Major League scouts were hovering about at Moses Lake practices. I still have to work at the idea the Twins or the Phillies or Pirates would send somebody here to Paradise Valley to see a kid from the Columbia Basin, but this region has produced its share of professional ballplayers.

Anyway, Ryan said when it came to the River Dogs, “We put aside ties to whatever town we came from. There was no Ephrata orange or Moses Lake maroon or Othello red. There was just (River Dog) teal and we were proud to wear it.”

So I took that school of thought to heart on Saturday and asked the guys how they could take the success they have had playing for various summer programs like the Central Washington Spuds (American Legion) or the River Dogs White (Babe Ruth) or River Dogs Blue (Senior Babe Ruth) and turn that into a 4A state championship for Moses Lake. Those three programs have received state, regional and national recognition. The River Dogs won the 2015 national championship. Doumit played on the 1998 team that won the first one.

Seems to me, the young gun Chiefs ought to be able to parlay that success into a run at the Class 4A state championship.

“I think that everything we do in the summer can translate over to what we’re doing here. We’ve all known each other for a log time. We’ve all known Donnie for a long time, either played for Donnie or against him. We all know how he coaches and that he can make us successful,” said senior right-hander Jordan Rios, who pitched for the River Dog Blue in the World Series last year. “Playing at a higher level (in the Senior World Series) can benefit you in the long run. Playing on a team that has played at that level really helps, because they know how to play in pressure situations on the mound or in the field or at the plate.”

Senior catcher Cody Goodwin came through the Spuds and the American Legion program and played in the state tournament last summer. He’s the guy behind the plate, making the call for a pretty fair Chiefs staff.

“Playing summer ball really helps out because you get a different look at different people and higher level competition against college guys. You can bring that experience back into what we’re doing here in high school,” he said. “This (high school season) is really different because we’re all coming together and playing well as a team and I really like what we’re doing and where we’re going.”

They wear maroon and gold, it’s just a game and they take it serious. It sounds like Moses Lake baseball is in good hands.

Rodney Harwood is a sports writer for the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at rharwood@columbiabasinherald.com