Douglas baseball hammers Wooster

RENO - The plan was relatively simple.

Set the tone early and see what happens from there.

Douglas High's baseball team executed that plan to near perfection Thursday afternoon, pounding out 15 hits and riding the arm of Tyson Estes to a 15-2 victory over Wooster in a matchup of the top two teams in the Sierra League.

Estes was nothing short of stellar, striking out 10 and carrying a no-hitter into the fourth and allowing only one hit, two walks and no runs in five total innings of work.

"Tyson did a good job again today," Douglas coach John Glover said. "That has been his M.O. all year, setting the tone on Thursdays for us. He did it again today and we were real pleased with his outing.

"He came out and went deep in some counts, but he threw his curveball for strikes when he needed to and settled in real quick."

Of course, it helped that the Tiger offense did a ton of damage in the first two innings to chase Wooster's Jeremy Joustra, who is headed to the University of Nevada next year on baseball scholarship.

Joustra hit Chad Walling with the second pitch of the game, and Spike Agosta sacrificed Walling to second. Joustra then walked Jimmy Pierce and D.J. Brady to load the bases.

Sophomore Phil Mannelly later came to the plate with two outs and clubbed the first pitch he saw to deep right center for a base-clearing three-run double.

"It really was a matter early in the game of getting that key hit," Glover said. "Mannelly gets that three-run double and that is a big hit right there. That's a hit we needed to set the tone of the game."

Estes refused to let Wooster recover in the bottom of the first, striking out two and getting a fly-ball out to Agosta in center field.

Joustra loaded the bases with no outs to open the second and Spike Agosta singled to bring Ryan Pruitt home.

Pierce sacrificed Chris Balcom home and Brady doubled to deep left to bring Walling and Agosta across and end Joustra's afternoon.

"Our guys did a good job of stepping up against a really good pitcher," Glover said. "He's heading to UNR, he's one of the top pitchers in the league. We just did a good job of getting a couple more hits in big situations there."

Wooster then brought in Lilly Jacobsen, the only female player in Nevada high school baseball this year.

Jacobsen allowed an RBI single to Mannelly but then settled down to allow only one run over the next three innings.

"They brought her in and she did a good job," Glover said. "She shut us down for three innings in the middle there, so it turned out to be real important to get those runs early."

Douglas, though, came back alive in the top of sixth with a 9-0 lead.

With one out, Nate Whalin drew a walk and Pruitt singled to center. Jordan Hadlock later drew a two-out walk off of Jacobsen to load the bases.

Agosta then singled to bring home Whalin and Pruitt and end Jacobsen's afternoon with two strikeouts in four innings pitched.

Ryan Guzman then singled to bring Hadlock home, Brady got hit by a pitch and Luken doubled to score Agosta, Guzman and Brady.

Chris Kinsley came on in the bottom of the sixth to close out the game for the Tigers and managed two strikeouts despite giving up a hit and two runs.

Agosta went 3-for-4 with three RBI, Luken had three RBI and Mannelly drove in four to lead Douglas in the game.

Wooster comes to Douglas for a 10 a.m. doubleheader Saturday, where there Tigers will have to go up against Jake Rasner, arguably the top pitcher in the North this season.

"We're going to be facing one of the best guys in the state Saturday," Glover said. "We have to approach him with care. We are absolutely going to have to battle. He'll be tough to beat.

"Anytime he is pitching, we'll have our work cut out for us."