Baseball: Douglas completes series sweep over Manogue

Call it one of those statistical anomalies that tend to crop up in baseball.

The Manogue baseball team out-hit Douglas High 31-26 in three games over the past week, but Douglas walked away with the series sweep, picking up 7-1 and 7-5 wins in a doubleheader in Minden Saturday.

Douglas made the most of its hits Saturday, scoring a run for every hit they registered and coming from behind in both games.

"I wish I had an answer for how we did that," Douglas coach John Glover said. "I wish it could always be that way. They out-hit us but we just came up with the big hits at the right time.

"It's something you hope for, but I don't think there is anything you could coach or teach about that.

"Getting a series sweep against a great team like this is big," Glover said. "We hadn't had a sweep since Fallon at the beginning of the year. It's important to pick up those wins with the way the league is shaping up."

Douglas' Tyler Hoelzen struck out five and walked one in game one to pick up the complete-game win. The game was locked in a scoreless tie before Manogue brought an unearned run across in the top of the fifth.

In the bottom half of the inning with Jeff Crozier on, Tyler May hit a line-drive shot off of the centerfield scoreboard. The ball bounced back onto the field and infield umpire didn't see where it had hit and ruled that it had bounced off the outfield wall.

May still managed to scoot around the bases for what was technically ruled a inside-the-park home run, giving Douglas a 2-1 lead.

Beau Davis, Kameron Van Winkle and Shane Fencl each drove in runs during a five-run sixth that essentially put the game away for the Tigers.

Manogue got off to a big start in game two, scoring five runs on six hits, including a pair of home runs, in the first inning and a half before Douglas senior Tim Rudnick came on in relief to shut the Miners out over the next five innings.

Douglas, in the meantime, chipped away at the Miner lead, scoring a single run in each of the first four innings before Rudnick's two-run shot in the bottom of the fifth put the Tigers up by one.

May hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth, scoring Fencl to give the Tigers an insurance run.

Rudnick finished with six strikeouts and one walk while scattering five hits in as many innings to pick up the win.

"Timmy is a senior and he's been in that situation a lot of times before," Glover said. "We needed him to shut them down and get a couple of zeroes up on the board to get back in that game. He did a really great job today."

May finished with two RBIs in the game, as did Rudnick and Van Winkle hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth. Tyler Hoelzen drove in a run as well for Douglas.

A scary moment toward the end of game two caused a nearly half-hour delay.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Manogue catcher Tim Lewis ran back toward the backstop to field a pop foul but stumbled and fell head first onto the corner of the brickwork lining. He was helped off the field after his head was heavily bandaged. His status was unknown but he was taken away from the field by cart for medical attention.