'Unfinished business'

MOSES LAKE — After powering through the first three rounds of the 14U Babe Ruth North Washington State Tournament with high-scoring wins, the 14U Columbia Basin River Dogs gutted out a 4-1 win over the Stilly Venom in the finals to advance to next week’s regional round.

“That’s these boy’s goals,” River Dog Head Coach Jaret Fulbright said. “They told me they had unfinished business, and that they wanted to go back to regionals and get it done this time.”

Columbia Basin reached the Babe Ruth Pacific Northwest regionals as a 13U team last season but fell short of qualifying for a World Series trip. With a strong performance in the North Washington State Tournament, the River Dogs are aiming to go further in the regional round.

“We’ve just got to carry this momentum into regionals,” River Dog pitcher Ryan Martinez said.

After a 16-1 opening-round win over Moses Lake, the River Dogs defeated the Venom 8-6 to reach the semifinals, where they poured on runs in a 20-2 win over Brewster.

In the state championship game, the Venom kept the River Dogs at bay to begin the game with no hits through the first two innings.

“They had to come with it and fight some adversity there this game,” Fulbright said. “They threw a good pitcher at us – he was on. He pitched against us on Friday, and he didn’t have the command against us on Friday that he had today. We stuck with it and had some clutch hits.”

Martinez broke the 0-0 tie on Sunday with an RBI single in the bottom of the third inning, giving his River Dog squad a 1-0 lead after the third inning.

“I saw two fastballs and three curveballs, knew the curveball was coming because he’s thrown it two counts before that,” Martinez said. “After I hit it, I just wanted to square it up and get to the outfield. It felt pretty good.”

After adding two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Columbia Basin’s Zayvier Olazcon drove in another run in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the River Dogs a 4-0 lead in the championship game. The Venom got a run back in the top of the sixth, but pitching starter Xzyyvn Martinez and reliever Ryan Martinez sealed the win with a 4-1 score.

“I feel like I could have done better pitching-wise, could have thrown more strikes, could have pitched contact a little bit more; my defense helped me out,” Xzyyvn Martinez said.

Fulbright said the biggest change between the River Dog’s first meeting against the Venom and Sunday’s title game was the weather.

“It’s hot out here, and playing in 99-100 degree weather is not the ideal baseball conditions,” Fulbright said. “We were used to playing a little earlier in the morning when it was a little cooler, and they had to face a little more adversity to do it. They battled through it, and that’s why they’re state champs.”

The River Dogs will move on the Babe Ruth Pacific Northwest regionals in Ferndale beginning on July 17. After falling out of the 13U regional tournament last year, the River Dogs enter the tournament with the goal of reaching the 14U World Series in Virginia.

The fields the tournament will be played on are turf, which Fulbright said the River Dogs are preparing for.

“Turf is a lot different than grass, the ball gets on you just a bit quicker,” Fulbright said. “We’re going to have our practices up at The Six this week so that we can prepare for it. We know some of the teams that were up there from last year, and it’s going to be a tough competition once we go up there.”

The 13U North Washington State Tournament was also held this week in Moses Lake, with Mount Vernon defeating Wenatchee 19-6 in the championship game at Larson Playfield on Sunday morning.

Other tournament results

No local squads qualified for bracket play at the 12U state tournament in East Wenatchee, and 12U Wenatchee went on to win the tournament.

At the 11U North Washington State Tournaments in East Wenatchee, 11U Moses Lake qualified for Saturday’s bracket play after going 3-0 in the first two days of the tournament with wins over 11U Eastmont (10-0), 11U Mount Vernon (16-6) and 11U North Olympic (11-1). In the opening round of bracket play on Saturday morning, Moses Lake fell 6-3 to Lynden, the eventual champion of the 11U tournament.

10U Moses Lake (Gold) also opened the 10U Cal Ripken North Washington State Tournament in Wenatchee with three straight victories, defeating 10U Ephrata (15-0), 10U Ellensburg (6-5) and 10U Omak to open the weekend. After qualifying for bracket play, Moses Lake fell 8-7 to North Olympic. 10U Wenatchee went on to win the tournament.

Also in Wenatchee was 9U Moses Lake, who fell 8-7 in the opening round of the 9U state tournament’s bracket round on Friday evening. 9U Wenatchee went on to win the tournament.

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com. Email him your photos of local athletes for consideration for publication.