Douglas High's strength all year has been its situational hitting, a term that's used in baseball that basically refers to teams that know how to manufacture runs.
The Tigers, though, faltered in what's normally their strength in a 5-3 loss to Carson High on Thursday. Douglas coach John Glover said his team did a "little better" of situational hitting on Saturday.
Actually, Douglas did a lot better job, scoring 24 runs in a sweep of the Senators at Ron McNutt Field. The Tigers won the opener 10-5 and then scored their first 11 runs after there were two outs in the nightcap on their way to a 14-7 win in the nightcap at Ron McNutt Field. In the second game, the Tigers also took advantage of a key error to score five unearned runs in the fourth inning to erase a 7-6 deficit.
"I didn't think we swung it very well," said Douglas coach John Glover about Thursday. "Our situational hitting wasn't very good. I thought we did a little better job today."
Douglas finished at 12-3 in the Sierra League and will be the Sierra League's No. 2 seed going into the Northern 4A playoffs, which begin Wednesday. Carson finished at 8-7 in league play and will enter the playoffs as the Sierra League's No. 3 seed.
The tentative schedule calls for Douglas to open the playoffs at 3 p.m. at Carson while the Senators would open the playoffs at 3 p.m. against Spanish Springs at Reno High.
The Tigers also received another outstanding effort in relief from Tyson Estes, who was the winning pitcher in the nightcap. After ace Chris Honer struggled in the first two innings, Estes came in and pitched five shutout innings, allowing just two hits. Estes also gave Douglas five effective innings in relief on Thursday.
"It was fantastic," said Glover about Estes' effort in the series. "Tyson did a good job picking us up. He's a big, strong workhorse."
In the nightcap, Carson took a 3-1 lead in the first when Royal Good, who had singled, scored on Willie Bowman's double. Mike Handley followed with an RBI single and eventually scored on a balk.
Douglas was able to touch Handley for five runs in the second as Spike Agosta, Luke Rippee and Bryan Miller all had RBI singles and Honer belted an RBI double to give the Tigers a 6-3 lead. But Carson came right back against Honer in the bottom of the second when Kevin Schlange doubled and scored on Dave Nelsen's single.
Danny Rotter and Good singled and then Eric Melendez hit an RBI single to make it 6-5. The bases were still loaded with no outs when Honer got Bowman to hit a comebacker for a 1-2-3 double play. But Handley picked up Bowman with a two-run double that gave Carson a 7-6 lead.
Douglas, though, took advantage of an error, three walks and a wild pitch to take an 11-7 lead. The tying run scored on the error with two outs when Carson failed to make the play on slow roller. Estes hit a two-run single that gave the Tigers an 11-7 lead.
"It's just discouraging," Carson coach Ron McNutt said. "We have one play that gives them five runs. That turned the whole momentum of the game.
"They took advantage of every mistake we made. The better team won today. Sometimes we play awfully well and sometimes we don't."
Douglas led 12-7 in the fifth when Carson had a chance to cut into the Tigers' lead after Schlange singled. But Nelsen was robbed of a run-scoring hit when Rippee made a leaping catch of his line drive at shortstop to end the inning.
Walling, Rippee and Huff all had two hits and Kyle Luken, Spike Agosta and D.J. Brady all added hits for Douglas. Handley, Good, Nelsen and Schlange all had two hits for Carson. Another highlight for the Senators was the pitching of Melendez, who finished up and struck out all five batters he faced.
In the opener, Jason Alcasas pitched a scoreless first for Carson with some defensive help after Walling tried to stretch a single into a double. Rotter in left field fired to Bowman, who hit Logan Parsley at second base to nail Walling.
Bowman's mammoth homer to right center field gave Carson a 1-0 lead in the first. But Douglas scored seven runs in the second. Huff doubled and scored on Jimmy Pierce's RBI double, Luken followed with an RBI single and Walling had a three-run double. Miller's RBI single and Huff's RBI double made it 7-1. Handley's homer made it 7-2 in the bottom of the second.
Douglas took a 10-2 lead in the fourth when Rippee led off with looked to be a homer to straightaway center field. But the ball apparently went through the higher fence above the lower fence and was ruled a groundrule double. Rippee went on to score o Miller's sacrifice fly and Pierce's RBI single eventually made it 10-2.
Carson chased winning pitcher Huff in the fifth when Nelsen singled and Rotter doubled. Good followed with a two-run triple and Bowman's RBI single made it 10-5. But Miller, who struggled on Thursday, came in to put out the fire, allowing on a hit by Melendez in 2.2 innings of relief.
Jared Wulff pitched 5.2 innings of effective relief for Carson, allowing two earned runs. Wulff received defensive help in the fourth after Luken doubled. Schlange then robbed Brady of a run-scoring extra base hit with an over-the-shoulder catch in right field.
Walling had three hits and Huff, Luken and Pierce all had two hits for Douglas. Bowman had two hits, Handley also had a double along with his homer and Parsley added a hit for Carson.
CARSON-DOUGLAS JVS SPLIT
The Carson High junior varsity baseball team overcame an 8-3 deficit in the nightcap, scoring 15 unanswered runs in an 18-8 win. Carson clinched the Sierra League title in the process, finishing league play at 16-2.
Carson scored five runs in the fourth and 10 runs in the fifth. Mike Teixeira had three hits and three RBI, Bryt Lewis had three hits and three runs, Jack Maloney had three hits, Jeremiah Teeter had two hits and three RBI and Nick Smallman and Adam Anderson each added two hits and two RBI. Smallman pitched a scoreless inning for the win.
Douglas won the opener 14-5 behind Nate Whalin, who had three hits, including two home runs.
Contact Charles Whisnand at cwhisnand@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1214.
