Baseball: Douglas sweeps first two games

The Douglas baseball team was 37 batters and 13 innings into the young season before the Tiger pitching staff allowed its first hit.

It added up to a strong opening day as senior pitchers Tyler Hoelzen, Tyler May and Tim Rudnick shined in victories over Reed and McQueen in the Mike Bearman Memorial Tournament at Reed High School in Sparks Thursday.

Hoelzen and Rudnick combined to throw a seven-inning no-hitter in a 3-0 win over Reed to start the day. Hoelzen finished with seven strikeouts and a walk in five innings of work to pick up the win and Rudnick struck out two and walked one in two innings of relief to record the save.

May kept a no-hitter going through five full innings against McQueen before surrendering a pair of hits and a pair of runs in the sixth in a 12-2 win over the Lancers. He struck out six and walked two in the game while Rudnick returned to the mound to close out the sixth with a strikeout.

"They threw a lot of strikes and kept the ball down," Douglas coach John Glover said. "We only walked four guys on the day. When you throw strikes, you give your defense a chance to perform and defensively I thought we had some guys step up and make some plays."

The Tigers also got off to a good start offensively, pounding out 18 hits in the two games.

"I thought they compete really well for two games," Glover said. "That's hard to do sometimes early in the year, especially when it's chilly out. I thought they played well for 13 innings. We talk about that a lot so that was a good thing.

"Reed and McQueen are perennial playoff teams from the other side. That's one of the reasons we like playing this tournament every year is you get to see some good teams. We're excited to start the season out like this."

Against Reed, Tanner Thomas had a pair of doubles and an RBI. May drove in a run and Beau Davis doubled while the Raiders committed four errors.

May went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs to help his own cause against McQueen. Davis went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a double, Shane Fencl drove in a pair of runs on a bases-loaded double and Thomas doubled.

Rudnick, Hoelzen and Jeff Crozier each collected a hit and drove in a run and Kameron VanWinkle and Conner Dillon each had a hit as well.

Douglas plays a pair of games at Damonte Ranch Friday at noon and 3 p.m.