Douglas baseball earns split with Huskies

Coming off a walk-off home run loss earlier in the day, the Douglas baseball team bounced back with a vengeance to take a 20-10 win over No. 2 Reno Saturday afternoon to take the doubleheader split in Reno and clinch the season series against the Huskies.

The Tigers put together 22 hits and cycled through nine different Husky pitchers in the second game, using an eight-run fifth and a five-run sixth to break the game wide open after trailing 8-7.

"It's good to get out of here with a win," Douglas coach John Glover said. "That was our goal coming into today and we accomplished that.

"Hitting is contagious and today it really rolled along that way for us. We tried to move runners around and just play the game. There's no handbook on it, we were just trying to do what works at the time."

Douglas jumped out to a 3-0 lead after opening the game with five consecutive singles.

Reno's Chad Doerr came on in relief with two on and no outs and struck out three consecutive batters.

He ended up striking out seven of the first 11 batters he faced, scattering a walk and a hit in the middle of that stretch while Reno managed to bring three runs across in the bottom of the second inning to tie the game.

Heading into the fourth, however, Douglas managed to break through against Doerr as Brandon Bernard drew a walk to open the inning and Tyler May laid a perfect bunt down just inside the first base foul line.

May was able to beat out the throw and Jordan Hadlock sent Bernard home with an infield single.

"Doerr came in there and did a good job," Glover said. "We ended up getting to him a bit and went from there."

May scored on a sacrifice fly by Niko Saladis, Nate Whalin singled and Phil Mannelly picked up two of his six RBIs in the game with a double to right-center.

That ended Doerr's afternoon but Reno was able to get out of the inning with another sacrifice and a ground ball to first.

Reno got back out in front in the bottom of the frame. The Huskies brought two runs across before pinch-hitter John Linert hit a three-run home run to left.

Troy Torres came on in relief for the Tigers and got out of the inning on a fly to center.

Douglas again loaded the bases to start the fifth as Willie Morgan reached on an infield single and Bernard drew a walk.

May again bunted safely, this time down the third baseline and Hadlock drew a bases-loaded walk to open the floodgates on an eight-run frame in which six different Tigers would drive in at least one run and four different Reno pitchers would take a turn on the mound.

Reno got two more runs across in the bottom of the inning, but Douglas brought five more across to start the sixth.

Hadlock came on to close the game on the mound, striking out two and getting a ground out to third to end the game by the 10-run mercy rule in the sixth.

Torres picked up the win in relief and Whalin, Eilers, Saladis, Hadlock and Morgan each had two RBIs. Pruitt, Bernard and May each drove in one.

Earlier in the day, Douglas battled toe-to-toe with the Huskies as Reno ace Garrett Luippold and Tiger sophomore lefty Wyatt Graham each turned in complete games on the mound.

Graham was the hard-luck loser, surrendering a walk-off solo shot to Drew Simpson in the bottom of the seventh to give Reno a 4-3 win.

"Wyatt threw really well, we were very happy with what he did today," Glover said. "I thought we did a good job with Luippold today. He's as good as there is in the league and we were right there all day.

"He had 11 strikeouts, but we had some good at-bats against him. When you lose on a walk-off homer, you have to bounce back. You have to get that second one. We were happy to be able to do that today."

Douglas led 3-1 heading into the third inning, but Reno brought two across on two hits in the bottom of the frame to tie it up.

Douglas is now 8-1 in league play on the year and will take on Wooster Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Reno.