Riverdogs hit rough patch after blazing start

As every bird hunter knows, there may be brief stretches each year where the river is too high and the dogs would not do well in the current.

Those same hunters know the waters will recede as the snowpack lessens, and in the blink of an eye the Riverdogs will once again swim against the current and get the duck.

That analogy may be a stretch, but it is a way of describing the rising waters the Clark Fork Riverdogs have encountered in the past two weeks as they have struggled to stay upstream in the American Legion baseball season.

The Class B Riverdogs, based in Plains and cobbled together from athletes throughout the Clark Fork Valley region, have faced a slew of Class A teams in recent days, not that head coach Jon Zigler would use that as an excuse.

The Dogs, after all, knocked off the Class A perennial power Missoula Mavericks in the opening days of the hunting, er baseball, season.

And they had boosted their out-of-the-gate season mark to 7-3 just a short time ago. Then the river rose up and washed away some hopes and dreams….at least temporarily.

The week of malaise began last Wednesday when the Dogs journeyed north to take on the Glacier Twins, a Class A team from the Whitefish area. And after two innings of a pitching duel in the making, the Twins exploded for six runs in the bottom of the third, then tacked on three more in the bottom of the fourth to build a 9-0 lead on their home field.

Along the way, Riverdogs starting pitcher Trevis McDonald was touched for six runs on three hits, in spite of striking out four Twins batters in three innings.

That sent coach Zigler to the bullpen looking for relief from the flood of runs and the combination of Orion Plakke, Eli Ratliff and Beano Fisher surrendered just a single run in the bottom of the eighth while holding the Twins to three hits.

That last run in the eighth, however, boosted the Glacier crew to a 10-0 lead forcing the game to be called due to the 10-run Mercy rule.

The Twins scored their 10 runs on seven hits, while starting pitcher H. Meehan yielded only two hits in eight innings on the hill.

The Riverdogs returned home, hoping for some home cooking to be good for their baseball souls, only to be rained out in one of their rare home appearances, this one against the Libby Loggers.

Fast forward to Sunday when the Dogs once again hit the road, this time heading east to Polson where they encountered the suddenly hot Mission Valley Mariners for a daylight double-header.

They fell behind 4-0 in game one of the double dip after just one inning of play. But the Clark Fork bunch got a run back in the top of the second on an RBI single by starting pitcher Garth Parker, who just a day earlier had competed in the District 14C track tournament and placed second in the shot put and discus events.

Parker settled down from his rough start and held the Mariners scoreless in the second and third, while the Riverdogs struck for a pair of runs in the top of the third inning thanks to back-to-back doubles by Jack Taylor and Plakke. Those runs made it 4-3 in favor of the Mission Valley boys, at least for half an inning.

Mission struck for three runs in the bottom of the fourth on a triple and a home run that ultimately produced three runs, giving the Mariners a 7-3 lead after four innings of play.

Neither team scored again until the bottom of the sixth when Mission Valley took advantage of several walks sandwiched around a single, double and triple to push six runs across the plate.

That outburst pushed the score to 13-3 and caused the game to end early on the Mercy rule.

Things did not get any better from there as game two of the double-header saw the Mariners score two in the bottom of the first, three in the second, six in the third and three in the fourth.

Along the way they had two more homers to build a 14-3 lead by the end of the fourth inning.

Clark Fork kept battling and in the top of the fifth got one run back on a solo home run by Plakke, but it would prove to be too little, too late.

The trio of losses dropped the Riverdogs to 7-7 on the season as they work to return to their early season winning ways.

And with a busy week coming up, the Clark Fork team will be hoping to get back into the hunt, beginning tonight (Tuesday) when they travel to Libby for a game with the Loggers.

Their road-heavy season then takes them to Missoula this Friday for a re-match with the Mavericks, followed by another trip to Whitefish for a Saturday double header vs the Twins.