Baseball: Douglas races past South Tahoe

MINDEN - For all of Douglas' 15 hits Thursday afternoon, it was a plate appearance late in the game that didn't see any contact at all that most impressed South Tahoe coach Don Amaral.

Douglas' Shane Fencl, who finished the day 2-for-2 with two doubles and two RBIs, was down in the count 1-2 and the Tigers already held the lead in what would end up being the final score, 14-1.

A pitch came in tight on Fencl and Fencl took it in the middle of his back.

"That's just smart baseball," Amaral, the Vikings' first-year coach said. "Give this whole team credit. They spanked the ball pretty hard against and they're up by a bunch in the last inning, Fencl's behind in the count and he doesn't move. He takes a pitch in the back

"There's just a great baseball culture here. They know how to play the game. We have to establish a culture like Douglas. There's a lot to learn here for our kids."

Douglas had four players - Danny King, Kyle Ford, Ryan Moglich and Brett Anderson - go 3-for-3 in the game and had eight of nine starters drive in at least one run on their way to the lopsided Sierra League win, which ended in five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.

Scott Rudnick went 1-for-1 on the day for Douglas as well.

It was welcome offensive output for Douglas coach John Glover.

"We need to get those sticks going," Glover said. "The guys had a better approach at the plate today (than what we saw last week). Balls started to fall in for us. We had a good approach Tuesday against Reno too. It was good to get some bats going today and hopefully we can keep them going through this weekend."

The Tigers also benefitted from three errors in the bottom of the third that eventually allowed for four extra runs to score.

"We're having tough times on Thursdays," Amaral said, referencing the Vikings' 17-5 loss to Damonte Ranch last week. "We are just running into too many innings where we have to get four, five or six out to get things done.

"That's part of that culture I'm talking about. You have to understand that when you screw up, you have to shake it off and make the next play. We'll regroup and give it our best on Saturday."

South Tahoe bounced back to give Damonte a pair of close games last Saturday, and Amaral said he's hoping his ace, Max DeLallo, will help the Vikings into a similar situation this weekend.

"You know, Douglas has (Beau) Battista and (Kameron) Van Winkle cranked up for the weekend," Amaral said. "And we've got DeLallo. He's popping the glove. he hit 92, 93 last game.

"We don't make a lot of mistakes behind him because we have confidence when he is out there. It's a matter building up to that type of consistency every game."

DeLallo has Douglas' attention heading in.

"He is one of the best pitchers we'll see this year," Glover said. "He's phenomenal and we've had trouble with him the past two years. It's a mental game for us, we have to know that we have to come to compete.

"He'll throw well for them. We have to play good defense and we'll have to scratch some runs across to compete with them on Saturday."

Douglas' Matt Thomas struck out five and walked one in four innings of work to pick up the win while Ryan Ford pitched a perfect fifth to finish his third-consecutive successful relief appearance in as many games.

South Tahoe did get twin 2-for-3 performances at the plate from Connor Casey and Ricky Braun. Casey drove in the Vikings' lone run in the top of the third on a two-out single with Jamie Yelles on second base. Cody Blareman went 1-for-1 with a pinch-hit single late in the game to account for South Tahoe's other hit on the afternoon,

"We hit the ball a little bit there," Amaral said. "We hit the ball, we charged, the kids didn't quit. We just have to take that and build upon it."