Douglas baseball sweeps North Valleys

MINDEN - Douglas High's baseball team is on a streak that coach John Glover hopes never ends.

The Tigers stretched their winning streak to six straight with a doubleheader sweep of visiting North Valleys, 15-5 and 10-3 Saturday afternoon.

All told, the Tigers have won seven of their last eight since an 11-10 loss to Wooster. Douglas is 5-4 in Sierra League play with three-game series left against Reno and South Lake Tahoe.

"These were two big wins for us," Glover said. "We hadn't had a series sweep all season, and that was good to get against a pretty good baseball team.

"We swung it well today, and I'm very happy about that. It was good to see everybody contributing. It's something that I've been preaching to the kids that we can't depend on the same guys every game."

Douglas pounded out 24 hits in the two wins. In the first game, seven starters hit safely. In the nightcap, eight starters hit safely.

In the opener, Douglas grabbed a 5-0 lead after two innings thanks to three hits, a hit batter and three walks by starter Aaron Allen.

After Marc Walling drew the first of his four walks, Bryan Miller followed with a walk. After a wild pitch, Austin Graham drove in Walling with a sacrifice fly. Winning pitcher Brandon Huff singled home Miller to make it 2-0.

In the second, a two-out error by third baseman David Brown led to three unearned runs. Walling walked, moving Jake Nielsen to second. Miller singled home Nielsen to make it 3-0, and after Graham was hit by a pitch, Huff singled in two more runs.

Four singles, three coming after two out, helped North Valleys close the gap to 5-3. Kyle Hansen drove in two of the runs with a single on a 3-2 pitch.

The Tigers put the game out of reach with four runs in the fourth thanks to a two-run single by James Bunting plus run-scoring hits by Brandon Silveira and Luke Rippee.

In the nightcap, Graham fanned 10 and walked four in his best outing of the season. He gave up a two-run homer to Scott Cousins in the first, and then blanked the Panthers until the sixth. North Valleys had the bases loaded and a run in, but Graham fanned the side.

Douglas took a 3-2 lead in the first on a sacrifice fly by Huff and a two-run double by Bunting. The Tigers made it 5-2 in the second when Miller slammed a two-run homer. Miller went 5-for-6 on the day.

Graham helped himself with a run-scoring double in the fourth to make it 6-2. EE