MINDEN -- Douglas High completed a three-game sweep of South Tahoe with wins of 17-0 and 5-4 Saturday on Senior Day.
The sweep gave Douglas an 8-7 Sierra League record, and some much-needed momentum entering Wednesday's zone playoffs. Douglas faces McQueen at 3 p.m. at Carson High School.
The first game was decided in the first inning when Douglas exploded for six runs on seven hits. James Bunting and Luke Rippee drove in two runs each in the opening inning.
Bunting was one of five seniors that enjoyed big first games.
Winning pitcher Austin Graham went 2-for-3 with a double and two-run homer; Bunting went 2-for-3 with two RBIs; Brandon Silveira went 3-for-4; Jake Nielsen went 2-for-3 with two RBIs; and seldom-used Jake Ruana went 2-for-3 with three RBIs.
Graham allowed only three hits, fanning six.
Douglas found the going tougher in the nightcap, battling back from a 3-2 deficit with three runs in the fifth.
Rippee doubled to right and scored on Graham's hard-hit ball off the shorstop's glove. Graham eventually scored on Kyle Luken's sacrifice fly. Ruana's single plated Silveira, who had walked, to make it 5-3.
Losing pitcher Peter Maes slammed a solo homer off winning pitcher Bryan Miller to make it 5-4, but Miller settled down and retired six of the last seven hitters to end the game.
SOFTBALL
Douglas 14-16, South Tahoe 0-0
MINDEN - The Tigers cruised into the 4A zone playoffs with a doubleheader sweep of South Tahoe on back-to-back no-hitters.
Douglas won the opener 14-0, as Kayla Dunn and Katie Pagen held South Tahoe hitless. Dunn fanned seven and walked two in three innings, and Pagen fanned three and didn't allow a baserunner in her two-inning stint.
Douglas pounded 17 hits in the first game, scoring in all five of its at-bats.
Valerie Smith slammed two homers and drove in four runs. Kayla Dunn (two RBIs), Kaycee Wilcks (four runs), Stevie Smith, Jessie Kizer and Cheryl Nicoll all finished with three hits.
In the second game, Brittany Puzey and Pagen combined for a no-hitter. Puzey fanned five in three innings, and Pagen struck out two.
Puzey helped her own cause with a two-run homer. Puzey, Dunn, Kelly McKinnon, Cassie Smith and Kristi Olsen all finished with two hits.
