Tyler May stood in front of his team's dugout awkwardly holding the Northern 4A Regional Baseball Championship trophy.
It'd been 20 years since anyone from Douglas High School had touched such a trophy and on Saturday afternoon, after the Tigers claimed a thrilling 4-3 win over Reno, it fell into May's hands while his teammates reveled in the victory.
"I don't know why I'm holding this right now," May said. "This is isn't mine, this is the team's."
Sure, May had just come off the performance of his career " striking out 12 and walking one against a powerful Reno lineup " but his attitude was one that ran true throughout this year's Tiger roster. An attitude, not incoincidentally, that helped carry the Tigers to the championship win.
There was senior Beau Davis, who'd spent the first part of the year batting out of the bottom of the Tigers' lineup after shifting to the starting catcher role despite being one of the top defensive outfielders in the region last season.
Reno had elected to intentionally walk May, one of the most dangerous hitters in the state this year, just to get to Davis with two outs. But for the second time in as many
weeks, it was Davis who delivered the game-winning hit.
In both instances, all Davis could talk about was how it just happened to be his turn in the lineup and that anyone else on the team could've and would've done the same thing.
"Here's a guy we asked to do some catching this year and he hit around the bottom of the order at the beginning," Douglas coach John Glover said. "We brought him up to the two hole and he just came up with a great piece of hitting today."
Even after senior Tim Rudnick was charged with a tough error on a sharp line drive up the middle from Reno's Tom Jameson that could've ended the game far short of Davis' heroics, there was no pulling this team apart.
"Those thing happen in high school baseball," Glover said. "The kids stepped up and picked each other up. That's what it's all about."
Indeed, instead of beginning to pick each other apart, most on the team were
surprised the play had been ruled an error.
"It was that close," May said of the play. "Jameson hit the ball hard, he crushed it. Anyone would have been lucky to make that play. It was a hard-hit ball."
The pick-me-up attitude showed through in the box scores throughout the tournament.
When the top five in the order went a combined 0-for-11 in the playoff-opener against Spanish Springs, it was No. 6 hitter Kameron Van Winkle and No. 7 hitter Troy Torres that accounted for all of the Tigers' scoring in the 3-2 win.
In fact, while the top of the order batted .266 for the tournament, the bottom half came up with a .322 clip. Yet, the top half still managed four extra base hits and 10 RBIs.
It seemed the right hit at the right time was always available to the Tigers, regardless of what part of the order was up.
It should come as no surprise, really, that teamwork was such a strongsuit for the Tigers this year.
On the 18-man roster, there were 37 seasons were of experience. That's an average of just over two years per player.
Three of this year's seniors saw varsity time as freshmen. Five were on the 2007 region runner-up squad and three of those were starters in the title game that year against Galena.
Six players on the roster were teammates on the football field and three saw starting time on the basketball court together.
"It's huge," Rudnick said of the team's familiarity. "We've been playing together for four years, some of us since Little League. It's just wonderful to do this with this team. It's hard to explain right now."
