While I'm sure the coaches of the two teams would have been just as happy to have the league race pretty well wrapped up by now, as a sports fan, you have to appreciate that the Carson and Douglas baseball teams took care of their respective business last week.
Their respective sweeps over Fallon and South Tahoe have set up one colossal showdown in this, the final week of the regular season.
Aside from the normal rivalry excitement you get whenever Douglas and Carson meet up in any sport, the big prize this week is that whichever team manages to take at least two of three games walks away with the Sierra League crown.
Just to add a little bit more to the week, both squads are coming in playing their best baseball of the year.
Carson is riding a 10-game win streak after winning the Atwater Easter Classic in California and sweeping through both Galena and Fallon.
Douglas is riding an eight-game win streak, and has won 13 of its last 14 with the lone loss coming to nationally-ranked and three-time defending state champion Bishop Gorman.
Carson comes in with a pitching staff that gets the job done and one of the top batting orders in the region.
Douglas comes in with a batting order that gets the job done and one of the top pitching staffs in the region.
Somewhere in there, something is going to have to give. With Carson at the plate, you are going to see some epic battles between pitcher and batter. Whoever controls that half of the inning is likely going to win this series.
It's tough to compare the two teams so far this year. Douglas dropped a game to Galena while the Senators swept and Carson dropped a game to Manogue while the Tigers swept.
The Senators won the series against Damonte 2-1 while the Mustangs are the only team so far this year to take a season series from the Tigers (also 2-1).
This week's series begins in Carson at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, returns to Minden on Thursday (also 3:30) and wraps up at 3:30 Friday back in Carson.
Neither team has been able to sweep the other in at least the past five years. Douglas took the 2008, 2007, 2005 and 2004 series, while Carson won the 2006 series 2 games to 1.
The teams have met up 15 times in the past five years and the contest has been decided by one run five times. During the same stretch, the games have gone to extra innings twice and each team has been able to end a game by the 10-run mercy rule once.
You can expect some great baseball this week, so if you can, try to make it out to at least one of the games.
I thought the Damonte Ranch softball team might have a shot to steal a game away from Manogue last week, but I never would have thought the Mustangs would sweep the series.
After dropping the first game of a doubleheader against the Miners last Monday, Douglas was in the situation of needing to win out and needing Manogue to lose at least twice more to have a shot at the league crown.
Suddenly, with the extra Manogue loss, Douglas had complete control over what happens in terms of playoff seeding in the next week.
They currently lead the league standings and need to win three of four games (they play Wooster Tuesday and Carson three times later in the week) this week to automatically clinch the title.
If Douglas manages a win against Wooster and a win against Carson, they can still clinch the league title if both Galena and Manogue only manage two wins in their respectice series.
The Tigers could still end up out of the playoffs if they drop three games this week.
Should be interesting, regardless of what happens.
Douglas travels to Carson on Wednesday (3:30) and plays a doubleheader at home against the Senators beginning at 2 p.m. Thursday.
- Carson baseball has already clinched a home game in the first round of the playoffs. Douglas can clinch one with at least one win this week.
- After the first round, the regional baseball playoffs will revert to Reno and Wooster for the remainder. In theory, this was fine when Wooster was a member of the Sierra League, but now the two venues belong to High Desert League teams. Probably too late in the process, but it would be nice to see one of the venues moved to either Manogue or Damonte Ranch from the Sierra League.
- I would love to see the regional championship game played at a neutral site like Peccole or Aces Ballpark. As it stands, both facilities will be empty the day of the game.
- Douglas baseball's win over Wooster marked their 20th victory of the season. It marked the eighth-consecutive season the Tigers have eclipsed the 20-win mark. Coach John Glover, currently in seventh season at the helm, has never had a team finish with less than 20 wins.
- The Douglas baseball team has been in contention for the Sierra League title heading into the final week of the season in all but one of the last five years. They've clinched it twice, finished second twice and took third in the 2004.
- Should the Tiger softball team clinch the league title this week, it'll be the first time since 2004 that they've done so. That was the same season that Douglas last won the Northern 4A title.
- Tyler May has hit eight home runs in the last four weeks.
- Douglas baseball sweeps South Tahoe. It should have been a given, but I was scared of this series from the first time I looked at the schedule in February. Tahoe is funny every year. First of all, the Vikings have enough talent to knock off a big team on the right day. Second, the series has been played entirely at the lake the last few seasons. Third, South Tahoe has this weird one-sided rivalry going with Douglas that the Tigers don't really buy into except in soccer. If you've been to a game, particularly basketball, you know what I'm talking about. Finally, the series was scheduled a week after Manogue and a week before Carson. There was the chance for an emotional letdown from the Miners and a chance of looking past the Vikings for Carson. I would not have been surprised at all to see South Tahoe steal a win away in there, but credit the Tigers for not letting that happen.
- Reed softball tops Spanish Springs. There has been an ongoing debate this year as to who the top team in the Northern 4A really is. Reed seems to have answered that question with its 2-1 series win last week. However, the three game were decided by four total runs. For the series, the teams each put up eight runs. I think it'll come down to whoever has the most pitching left in the latter rounds of the regional tourney and the depth appears to favor Reed a bit. Time will tell.
- Fallon softball 8, No. 8 Carson 4. I've had a really tough time getting a good read on both Carson and Fallon this year. Fallon has picked up a big win in a number of series against highly-ranked opponents (Douglas, for example) and Carson has not come up with nearly as many wins as I though they would (I tabbed them as league champs heading into the year). In light of those two thoughts, I really shouldn't have been surprised by this game, but I was.
- Carson baseball wins a pair of one-run games over Fallon. For starters, the Senators were on the road, playing after a fairly-long bus ride that morning. I saw some talent when Fallon was here earlier in the year, but I did not expect these games to be that close. The Senators had to come from behind in the first game.
- Not-so-much. Reno baseball undefeated in High Desert League play. With only winless Elko remaining on the schedule, it appears the Huskies will wrap up the year with a perfect league slate. Their sweep over No. 9 McQueen last week was pretty impressive. They face a tough road, though. They'll most likely get Damonte Ranch, Galena or Manogue in the first round (probably Galena would be my guess), but would likely run up against either Douglas or Carson in the second. That's a tough matchup either way. Getting out of their bracket will be extremely tough (particularly if it were Douglas or Carson and Damonte Ranch that ended up in their bracket) " so much so that I would not be shocked to see the regional championship game played at a neutral site after all: Reno High School.
If I had a vote for overall player of the year in the Northern 4A Regional baseball and softball honors ballots (and I don't), this is what it would look like, based mostly on their respective performances over the last week:
Baseball
1.Tyler May, Douglas; 2. Tyler Hoelzen, Douglas; 3. Tom Jameson, Reno; 4. Matt Rutledge, Carson; 5. Casey Yocum, Reed.
Softball
1. Chelsea Cohen, Reed; 2. Ashley Collier, Spanish Springs; 3. Megan Dortch, Manogue; 4. Stephanie Harper, Douglas; 5. Samantha Puzey, Reno.
The top athletes, regardless of sport, at Douglas High determined by production during competition, overall value to their team, ability to perform with consistency in routine situations, performance compared to others at the same position throughout the state/region, ability to come up big in clutch situations, versatility, attitude, sportsmanship, overall athletic ability, heart, potential at the next level, and a host of other intangibles (emotional leadership, role-playing value, work ethic, etc.) This is all, of course, just my opinion.
Spring Sports
1. Thomas Wicker, golf
2. Tyler May, baseball
3. Stephanie Harper, softball
4. Tyler Hoelzen, baseball
5. Jessica Waggoner, track & field
6. Tim Rudnick, baseball
7. Emily Weaver, softball
8. Kyra Barth, track & field
9. Katie Dry, track & field
10. Katrina Morgan, softball
Watch list: Kameron VanWinkle, baseball, Jessica Gorton, track & field; Eddie Kollar (diving); Morgan Blomstrom (softball); Mia Townsell (softball), Troy Torres (baseball), Tanner Thomas (baseball)
2008-09 School Year
1. Jessica Waggoner, volleyball/basketball/track & field
2. Tim Rudnick, football/basketball/baseball
3. Eddie Kollar, cross country/wrestling/diving
4. Nico Barker, football/wrestling
5. Parker Robertson, football/basketball
6. Katie Dry, soccer/basketball/track & field
7. Dany Heidt, soccer/basketball
8. Ally Freitas, soccer/basketball
9. James McLaughlin, basketball/football
10. Tyler Hoelzen, basketball/baseball
2007-08 school year
1. Bridget Maestretti, volleyball/basketball/track
2. Tim Rudnick, football/basketball/baseball
3. Jessica Waggoner, volleyball/basketball/track
4. David Laird, football/basketball
5. Sarah Hartley, soccer/basketball/track
6. Jessica Gorton, basketball/track
7. Jeff Crozier, soccer/baseball
8. Brock Peterson, football
9. Tanner Thomas, baseball/football
10. Jeff Nady, football/basketball
- "I'd like to request the song 'Lady in Red' and I want to dedicate it to my husband." -- The car radio, Saturday night.
- I've been slowly working my way through Ken Burns' documentary film "Baseball" for the last month or so. It's an incredible piece of work " all nine volumes of it. It leaves on in the early 90s, but for a comprehensive history of everything you ever might have wanted to know about the game, I would highly recommend it.
- The good news is that my daughter seems to have taken a liking to baseball. The bad news is that whenever she had a bat in her hands, my head apparently looks a whole lot like the ball.
- Apparently Malaysia's Olympic Council is developing a new sports channel to promote its homegrown stars and neglected sports, like (and I quote) chess.
