14U River Dogs fall in regionals

FERNDALE — After a strong start in pool play at the 14U Babe Ruth Pacific Northwest Regional, the 14U Columbia Basin River Dogs fell to the Stilly Venom in Saturday’s semifinal round of the tournament.

The game was a rematch of this month’s North Washington State Tournament championship game, where the River Dogs won 4-1 on July 9 in Moses Lake.

“Playing earlier in the morning compared to playing later in the day was really the only change,” Fulbright said. “The boys seemed upbeat and ready; we just didn’t come out on top in that one.”

Stilly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning of Saturday’s semifinal matchup, a lead that carried on until the sixth inning according to Fulbright. From there, the Venom maintained the lead into an eventual 4-1 win over the River Dogs.

“Our pitching was there,” Fulbright said. “We out-hit them; they just hit a little bit better with runners in scoring position than we did.”

Columbia Basin had winning scores of 12-2, 29-1, 10-0 and 22-1 in the four games of pool play, but the offense cooled off against Stilly in the semifinals.

“We had our opportunities to score runs, we just failed to do so,” Fulbright said. “Looking back at it, that was easily a game that if we would have done a few things better that was a game we could have won. We made a few mistakes, which (Stilly) played really good defense and had a good pitcher on the mound that kept them in the game.”

The loss ended Columbia Basin’s season, just two wins shy of reaching the World Series in Virginia. This was the second straight year the River Dogs had reached the Pacific Northwest Regional tournament.

“They all grew so much,” Fulbright said. “We added three or four new players to the team from the year prior, and the growth they made throughout the season was awesome to see. Once high school season was over for some of them and we got our whole team together, they just gelled together and we saw what we can do there that last month and a half of playing.”

Different practice situations helped the River Dogs improve their hitting throughout the course of the summer, where Fulbright said the team’s biggest growth was.

“Throughout the season the most they grew in was hitting,” he said. “We started out the season and we weren’t hitting the ball like we should, and we put more emphasis on that and they came out ready to play the last month and a half of the season.”

Being a 14U team, this summer season will lead many players on the team into their first year of high school baseball.

“I want to see high schools in the Columbia Basin, despite what high school they might go to, succeed and compete for those state championships at the high school level,” Fulbright said.

Despite the sour ending to an otherwise strong season, Fulbright remains hopeful the River Dogs will return just as strong next year.

“We fell a little short, and hopefully the boys will stay hungry and go after it again next year,” Fulbright said.

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.