The thing about tight pitchers' duels is that someone eventually has to come up on the short end of them.
On Tuesday it was Kameron Van Winkle and the Douglas Tigers, who fell to regional favorite Galena 4-3 in Minden.
Douglas fell to 10-11 overall and 4-7 in Northern 4A play with the loss.
"It's definitely a tough one to lose," Douglas coach Bruce Jacobsen said. "But we played better baseball than we did the last couple of games and that was good to see. We can live with playing that way and having a shot to win at the nd, but these close losses definitely sting.
"It's tough to swallow."
Van Winkle was solid against the Grizzlies' high-powered offense, striking out five, walking three and scattering eight hits in taking the loss.
But Galena's Jace Puckett won the battle on the mound, striking out nine, scattering five hits and overcoming five walks and two hit batsmen to pick up the win.
"Those two guys obviously are two of the best pitchers in the league," Jacobsen said. "They went pitch for pitch with each other and unfortunately we just came out on the short side today. We have to find a way off the short side."
Puckett had to pitch out of a bases-loaded two-out jam in the bottom of the seventh to seal the win.
Douglas' Brett Parks led the inning off by drawing a five-pitch walk, but the next two batters went down in order.
That brought Van Winkle to the plate with two outs and one on and he slugged the third pitch he saw deep over the left field fence but it drifted just foul.
"Kameron almost tied it there for us," Jacobsen said. "That could have bee huge, but it just wasn't meant to be."
As it was, Van Winkle battled through a seven-pitch at-bat to draw a two-out walk, bringing Matt Thomas, who was previously 0-for-3 on the day, to the plate.
Thomas plugged a 1-1 double between left and center field to bring Park around to score , cutting the deficit to 4-3.
"Matt had struggled up until that point but that was a huge hit," Jacobse said.
With runners on second and third, Galena took advantage of the open slot at first to intentionally walk Douglas slugger Cody Lommori.
"We battled and stayed with it the entire game," Jacobsen said. "We put together a great chance to either tie it or win it there late. We got to th heart of the order at the end of the game, which was great.
"We were definitely very excited to see Cody coming to the plate in that situation, but Galena knows who he is and they weren't going to take that chance."
Senior second baseman Tanner Egan, who is batting .306 with 11 RBIs this season, took his turn with two outs and the bases loaded.
After falling back 0-2, he fended off three more pitches before Puckett got him swinging to end the game.
"Tanner has been great for us all year and it really could have gone either way there," Jacobsen said. "He got a couple of good swings in. It just didn't happen today."
Douglas took an early 1-0 after Van Winkle pitched a scoreless first wit two strikeouts.
Shane Fencl drew a walk to lead off the bottom half of the inning and VaN Winkle was hit by a pitch with one out to put runners on first and second.
Lommori singled to shallow center, bringing Fencl around
Galena answered right back with two runs in the top of the second.
Catcher Dustin Granata singled up the middle with two outs and moved to third on a double from Cole Fenner. Drew Anderson hit into a fielder's choice, which allowed Granata to score and Andrew Smgala singled to score Fenner with two outs.
Douglas tied it back up in the bottom of the third when Fencl hit a leadof double to deep center.
Leo Trebotich bunted safely and Van Winkle hit a long fly to center, scoring Fencl.
Galena went ahead 3-2 in the top of the fifth when Jorge Medina led th inning off with a double and shortstop Daniel Ferguson singled him home.
The Grizzlies' final run came on a designed baserunning play in the top of
the sixth with Granata on third and Fenner on first. Fenner had reached on
an error and Granata moved to third on the same play.
Van Winkle, who'd already made a number of stellar defensive plays from the
mound by a diving catch on a bunt attempt in the third, and pair of tough ground balls from Galena's Zack Parkinson to end the third and fifth innings, was attempting to fake the pickoff to first in an effort to catch Granata at third. After two tries at it with Smgala at the plate, Van Winkle stepped off to look Fenner back into first but Granata got a jump on the play and snuck into home plate, sliding under the tag. "We were ready for that play and we had it scouted pretty well," Jacobsen said. "We had it and then they caught us on it. Defense hurt us a bit today. When you look back at it, that situation was the difference today." Douglas travels to Galena Thursday at 3:45 p.m. (results will be online at recordcourier.com) and starts its series with Damonte Ranch Saturday in Reno. "We've got to start scratching some wins together if we want to see the playoffs," Jacobsen said. "This was a game where we didn't win but we learned a bit about ourselves that could prove helpful down the road. "I wish we could've scored 10 runs for Kameron, because he deserved a win today. He's been pitching great for us all season. Hopefully we can find a way to the playoffs and go from there."
