Riverdogs snare signature win at Kalispell tourney

How about them Dogs? They keep battling and overcoming, and taking on all comers.

If you look in the dictionary under the word “perseverance” there would probably be a team picture.

Knock em down, they get back up and you better be ready to go toe-to-toe.

The latest example? With an injury depleted line-up that left their bench looking like a very lonely place, the Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs, just two years into a baseball revival, picked up a signature win Sunday morning when they rallied to defeat the Class AA Mead (Spokane) Panthers 5-3 in their final game of the John R. Harp Legion baseball tournament in Kalispell.

The win pushed the Class B Riverdogs to a 20-win season, with this weekend’s tournament in Belgrade their last games of the 2022 season.

Clark Fork pitcher Nate Zigler pitched a complete game and held the upper division Panthers to four hits and just one earned run, striking out seven Mead batters along the way.

Zigler, fresh back from the injury list, also went three-for-four at the plate and scored a pair of runs for the Dogs, who had dropped their first three games of the tournament due in large part to a rash of injuries that sidelined key players, including Orion Plakke (out for the year with a broken thumb) and Eli Ratliff, who suffered an eye infection and missed most of the tournament.

But in coach Jon Zigler’s words, it was “next man up” for the Riverdogs who fell behind 2-0 after two innings of play. However, the return of Zigler on the mound and the continued torrid hitting by Jack Taylor helped the Clark Fork squad overcome that early deficit with three runs of their own in the top of the third inning.

Mead scored a solo run in the bottom of the sixth inning to knot the score at three apiece heading into the final inning of regulation play.

The Dogs then pushed a pair of runs home in the top of the seventh and watched as Zigler shut the Panthers down in the bottom of the seventh to secure the Riverdogs’ 20th win of the season.

Taylor finished the game with a pair of hits in three at bats, with two RBIs to his credit. Trenis McDonald also had a two hits for the Dogs, who recorded nine hits for the game. Jody Page and Garth Parker also had an RBI each for Clark Fork, which heads to Belgrade, MT this weekend for another tournament loaded with upper division teams.

Earlier in the tournament, the injury plagued Riverdogs could not muster much offense without the services of Ratliff, Zigler and Plakke, three of their top hitters on the year.

They opened the tournament with an 8-0 loss to the Kalispell Lakers B team Friday when they were held to just two hits in the shutout. Along the way they committed five errors in five innings of play.

“We just couldn’t get the offense going with the missing starters out of the lineup”, coach Zigler said.

Kalispell scored twice in the bottom of the first, then added three runs in their half of the second and third innings to take control of the tournament opener for both teams.

Saturday morning the Dogs took on the Class AA Bozeman Bucs, who dropped the Riverdogs to 0-2 in the tournament with a 5-2 win, despite a strong pitching performance by Taylor, who gave up 11 hits in seven innings of work, but kept the Dogs in the game with a four strikeout performance. The Bucs had taken a 3-0 lead in the top of the third, then scored solo runs in the fourth and sixth innings to go up 5-0.

But in another case of never give up, the Riverdogs rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of inning number seven on an RBI single by Tanner Day. Alessi Rolando and Taylor both scored in the bottom of the seventh, but it was too little too late for the Dogs.

Saturday evening the Riverdogs faced the Kalispell Lakers AA squad and once again could not generate any offense in an 8-0 loss to the host team. Lakers pitchers limited the Riverdogs to three hits in the five inning game.

That set the stage for the gutsy win over Mead Sunday morning. A bright spot for the Dogs was the four double plays they turned during the four games they played.

Clark Fork opens the Belgrade tournament Thursday at noon with a game against the Butte Muckers. They are scheduled to play Gallatin Valley Friday morning, then face Helena and host Belgrade Saturday.