Anyone who has ever played fetch the stick at a local pond or lake with a retriever or other kind of “water” dog knows how tough and relentless these dogs can be.

Even after repeated trips back to shore with their floating prize, the dogs, panting and out of breath, will drop the stick at your feet, look at it, look up at you, look at the stick and repeat the procedure until you pick it up and throw it again. You can almost feel them thinking “throw the damn stick”.

Then, once again, they will latch onto the stick and come back ashore, puffing and snorting the whole way.

It’s called heart.

And it’s a great analogy for the Clark Fork Valley Riverdogs who huffed and puffed their way through the 2022 Montana American Legion baseball season, which for them came to an end amid the blazing sun and swirling dust of the Belgrade baseball park last weekend.

An 8-7 loss to the Helena Independents in the semifinal round of the eight-team tournament brought the Riverdogs’ season to a close Sunday morning. The Dogs had “fetched the stick” with vim and vigor for three days under the hot summer sun, but they could not overcome the Independents, whom they had thumped 11-1 the day before.

They pushed things to the limit with the tying run on first and the winning run at the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but a third and final out closed out a 23-23 campaign against mostly upper level competition throughout the year.

Along the way they battled key injuries that on at least two occasions left their bench lonelier than the Maytag repairman. Among the injuries was a season-ending hand injury to Orion Plakke, who was among the team’s leading hitters.

But the Class B Riverdogs kept battling, no excuses, “next man up” as their unofficial team motto.

They finished the “Boys of Summer Classic” tournament with a 3-2 record over four days of top notch baseball.

In the semi-final round against Helena, the Dogs jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead after one inning of play. The Independents rallied for a pair of runs in the top of the second, and solo runs in the top halves of innings three and four to cut the Clark Fork lead to 5-4 before the Dogs tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 7-4 advantage into the fifth.

Neither team scored in inning number five and the Dogs had a shot at advancing to the championship game if they could hold the lead.

However, Helena pushed four runs across in the top of the sixth to go up 8-7 and then held on to that lead over the last inning.

Nate Zigler, who pitched all but the final two outs of the game for the Dogs and who was playing his final game as a Legion player surrendered 13 hits while striking out three in his final trip to the mound for the Dogs. Zigler had one hit in four trips to the plate and drove in a run for Clark Fork, which also got RBIs from Eli Ratliff, Tanner Day and Bryson McCormick.

Jack Taylor continued his torrid hitting with a single in three at bats. He finished the tournament with nine hits in 19 trips to the plate and nine runs batted in.

The Riverdogs reached Sunday’s championship round with a pair of blow-out wins Saturday, including a 19-4 thumping of the host Belgrade Bandits Saturday evening. That win came on the heels of their 11-1 win over Helena Saturday afternoon.

Against Belgrade, the Dogs wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as they scored six times in the top of the first inning, then added another seven runs in their half of inning number two.

Clark Fork added two runs in each of the next three innings, while Belgrade was able to score two in the bottom of the third and two more in the bottom of the fourth, but the Dogs’ lead was far too much to overcome.

Riverdogs starting pitcher Trenis McDonald threw all five innings against Belgrade, giving up seven hits while striking out four batters and walking only one.

But the gold stars for the day went to the offense, which erupted for five doubles and three triples during the rout, led by Ratliff who was four for five at the plate with three RBIs. Ratliff finished the tournament with a sparkling 10 hits in 20 official at bats.

And while he was controlling the Bandits offense with his pitching, McDonald went three for three with three RBIs versus the host team.

Prior to their win against Belgrade, the Dogs roughed up Helena 11-1 behind the two-hit pitching of Taylor, who went the distance and struck out eight Independent batters over five innings.

Ratliff and Zigler had three RBIs each in the win over Helena, while second baseman Alessi Rolando was two-for-two with a pair of runs batted in. Clark Fork got nine total hits during the win to go with six walks by Helena pitchers.

Friday, the Riverdogs went up against the Gallatin Valley Outlaws from the Bozeman area but could not get the bats going for the only time in the tournament. The Outlaws jumped out to a 4-1 lead after one inning of play. Neither team scored in the next four innings of play, a streak that ended in the top of the sixth when GV scored twice.

The Dogs came back and matched those two runs in their half of the sixth, but were unable to score in the bottom of the seventh in the 6-3 loss to the Outlaws.

Taylor had two hits against the Outlaws and batted in all three of the Dogs runs, but the only other Clark Fork player with a hit was Zigler, who had a double. Taylor’s two hits were a triple and a double.

Clark Fork opened the tournament Thursday morning when, as head coach Jon Zigler said, “they came out swinging hot bats” versus the Butte Muckers in an 18-2 win that was halted in the fifth inning by the 10-run Mercy Rule.

In their opening game win, the Riverdogs erupted for seven first inning runs, then increased their lead to 9-0 after two innings with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second. They went on to add three more tallies in the third and put the game away with six in the bottom of the fourth.

Taylor was once again one of the hitting stars for Clark Fork, with a three-for-four performance at the plate part of his four RBI game. McDonald was also three-for-four with a single RBI, while Ratliff added three RBIs on two hits in four at bats. Zigler also batted in a pair of runs for the Dogs.

The 3-2 showing in the Belgrade tournament gave the Riverdogs a 23-23 season record, a marked improvement over their 17-win season last year.

Playing in just two home stands the entire season, Clark Fork went up against all comers, including AA and A level teams from Montana, Idaho and Washington.