Dirt Dawgs advance to State-A Legion semis against Griz

A troubling pattern faced the Medical Lake Dirt Dawgs when they were set to meet the Walla Walla Griz in the opening game of the American Legion Single-A state tournament in Yakima.

The Dirt Dawgs lost twice earlier in the season to the Griz, 11-10 and 8-7, both within three days at the Gonzaga Prep Tournament in June — each in disappointing walk-off fashion.

Medical Lake, however, turned the tables on Walla Walla, July 27, claiming a 5-4 victory. They did it scoring the winning run in the bottom of the first extra inning — another walk-off when Levi Brower’s walk forced home Aiden Miller.

“We had great defensive efforts all around, but our outfield play by Colton (Lonning), Ian (Thompson), Lincoln (Dickey) and Aiden Fontenot’s pitching is the primary reason that we were in the position to win,” head coach Lance Michaud wrote in a text message.

The opening round victory, followed by a 6-3 loss to the Yakima Pepsi Pak Juniors, but more eighth-inning heroics in a 4-3 win against the Trail Orioles, leaves the Dirt Dawgs in the semi-finals on July 30 vs. the Flames Baseball Club (3-0 tournament/30-7 overall).

“We do not know much about this team,” Michaud said. “From scouting it looks like the middle of their order is the heart of their offense.”

Medical Lake (2-1/26-12) crafted a 3-0 lead against their league opponent, Trail, only to see the Canadians tie it with a run in the top of the seventh.

Colton Lonning, Zach Boyd and Aiden Fontenot each had a pair of hits for Medical Lake, which only had seven hits total. Tyson Finch pitched seven innings and survived a 10-hit Trail attack before Ian Thompson took over to earn the win in one inning of work with a pair of strikeouts.

Michaud’s strategy in that decisive inning was to bunt with Lonning on base.

“But the pitcher threw a ball, then tried picking off Colton at first,” Michaud explained. An error by the first baseman let Lonning get all the way to third.

Next up was Boyd who Michaud described as having “A couple hits and loud outs,” and just needed some kind of ball hit deep to score the winning run.

“Not only did he do that, but on the first pitch he hit a rocket that one hopped the fence,” Michaud said.

Pepsi Pak’s five-run fourth was the difference as that rallied them from a 3-1 deficit. Jordan Brickhouse, Brady Angell and Cam Gardner each had a pair of hits while Boyd added a double.