Baseball: Reno blasts Douglas

The top-ranked Reno High baseball team came to Minden Tuesday afternoon and left little doubt as to why they are the top-ranked team in the region.

The Huskies extended their season-opening win streak to 18 games with a 17-4 clubbing of the fifth-ranked Douglas Tigers.

Reno had five of its first six batters of the game record hits with the remainder reaching on an error as the Huskies took a 5-0 in the first inning.

They tacked on four more runs in the second, boosted by a mammoth three-run home run from UCLA-bound first baseman Pat Gallagher to set the score at 9-0.

Douglas, which left for Las Vegas for the Bishop Gorman Invitational Wednesday morning, cycled through its pitching staff liberally in an effort to save them for the up to five games they'll play in the tournament. In total, the Tigers used five pitchers in six innings Tuesday.

Ryan Ford, Matt Thomas and Beau Battista each took scoreless turns on the mound while ace Kameron Van Winkle was saved for Wednesday's tournament opener.

In the meantime, the Tigers chipped away at the lead as Cody Lommori scored on a fielder's choice from Tanner Egan in the bottom of the third and Cody Begovich doubled to score Kyle Ford in the bottom of the fourth.

Douglas' Danny King led off the bottom of the fifth with an infield single and Shane Fencl doubled to left field, moving King to third. Egan again grounded into a fielder's choice, allowing King to score.

Battista later drilled a single into right field to bring Fencl home, setting the score at 9-4.

Reno exploded for eight runs in the top of the sixth, however, and Douglas was unable to answer in the bottom half, ending the game due to the 10-run mercy rule.

King led the Tigers with a pair of hits while Fencl and Kyle Ford each doubled. Egan drove in a pair of runs while Begovich and Battista each had one RBI.

Gallagher led Reno at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double, a home run and three RBIs.