River Dogs drop North Spokane

EPHRATA — The 18U Columbia Basin River Dogs ended the Jerry Henderson Memorial Tournament with a win on Sunday over the North Spokane Dodgers, using a four-run rally in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead after being down three runs.

“With a young ball club and playing quality, older teams, what we were most impressed with was their ability to continue to fight despite sometimes making young mistakes,” said Brock Lybbert, co-head coach for the River Dogs. “They were able to gut out some of those wins by continuing to compete and stay in the fight.”

Down 5-2 after the top of the sixth inning, the River Dogs ran through the batting order over the course of the bottom of the sixth, with catcher Holden Koziol jumpstarting the run with a single before reaching third base off an error on a pick-off attempt.

“That hit, I was just thinking ‘Gotta get on,’” Koziol said. “The pick-off, I was hoping for that — get on and get an extra base to get in scoring position. That was the idea of it.”

Center fielder Jackson Carlos followed up with an RBI single to cut the lead to 5-3, and two of the next three Columbia Basin batters got on base by being hit by a pitch and a reach on an error to load up the bases.

The next two batters – second baseman Zane Harden and left fielder Peyton Juarez — were both walked to tie the game at five, and right fielder Evan Smith was hit by a pitch to give the River Dogs a 6-5 lead.

“It’s the confidence and belief in every guy,” Lybbert said. “There’s guys there that were called upon to have an at-bat that maybe don’t necessarily always get at-bats, and guys that were asked to run for us — it takes everybody, it always will. Especially when you’re playing with a young team.”

Lybbert pointed to doing the small things correctly in the game — things like laying down bunts, good base running and more — to ways the River Dogs can find success this season.

“We don’t have a lot of guys that are going to hit 10 home runs this summer for us with a lot of us being young, so we have to execute and play small ball,” he said. “ … When we do those things and execute the little things in the game, that’s when this team can beat anybody.”

The River Dogs went 2-2 over the weekend, opening with a 5-3 loss to Penticton on Friday evening before bouncing back with a 1-0 win over Penticton on Saturday afternoon. In the win, pitcher Blaine Macdonald pitched a full seven innings, striking out nine batters and surrendering four hits.

“During the game, I felt great,” Macdonald said. “Got in a groove, got in my rhythm and couldn’t really stop.”

Koziol delivered the lone run of Saturday afternoon’s win, an RBI single on a line drive to center field.

“Gotta put the ball in play and gotta score,” Koziol said. “That’s what was going through my head.”

The River Dogs lost 4-1 to North Spokane on Saturday evening, where the Dodgers scored runs in the bottom of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to pull away with the win.

Windy conditions were present throughout the weekend, which affected the trajectory of balls off hits and while fielding.

“It felt like all weekend long our dangerous hitters continued to find good barrels and put it right at (defenders) because the wind would blow it or knock it down,” Lybbert said. “We told the guys to just trust the process.”

The co-head coach also gave nods to pitchers Cooper Hancock and Bodie Yale for their starts on the mound throughout the weekend, as well as Harden, Juarez and Macdonald for their performances in the batter’s box throughout the three days.

“Moving forward into our next tournament this weekend at WSU, those guys are going to stay hot for us and hopefully keep scoring.”

The River Dogs head to the Palouse Summer Series this weekend, competing in the 19U division. First pitch to begin the tournament is at 1 p.m. on Thursday against the BBB Kings at McDonald Park in Colfax.

“Ending a weekend on a win really boosts the confidence,” Macdonald said. “Gives us something to look back at and say ‘Yeah, we can do this.’ That’s a tough team; they have some dudes. We just came out, played solid baseball and got the win there.”

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