Huskies outlast Douglas baseball

Douglas High School baseball will have to play its way through the consolation bracket if it wants to make a run to the Class 5A state tournament after falling, 2-1, to the No. 1 seed in Reno Wednesday.

The Tigers will be back in action tomorrow (Thursday) at 4 p.m. in Minden against No. 7 Spanish Springs.

Since both teams have one loss in the double elimination tournament, the loser Thursday will see their season end.

The Cougars beat McQueen, 6-2, Wednesday in the consolation bracket to end the Lancers’ season.

Trying to grab the edge

Douglas’ lone run came in the top of the first Thursday after Thomas Young led off the contest with a triple down the right field line in an 0-2 count.

Jeffrey Peters scored the speedy outfielder on an RBI groundout to give the fifth-seeded Tigers a quick lead, 1-0.

Senior starting pitcher Keegan Freeman did his best to keep the Tigers in command of the one-run lead, retiring the first three batters he faced in order.

Reno tied the game in the bottom of the second after a single and a Tiger error put two on with one out.

With two outs, the Huskies flipped a base hit into left to score their runner on second, tying the contest, 1-1.

It was the last run either side would manage until the fifth inning when the Huskies plated the game-winner.

In the bottom of the fifth, Reno bunted for a single before loading the bases on back-to-back Douglas errors.

With only one out in the frame the Huskies third hitter, Harvey Smerdon, got enough under a ball to plate the go-ahead run on an RBI sacrifice fly to right field.

“When you play Reno you can’t shoot yourselves in the foot,” said Douglas High head coach Jim Tucker. “They’re a great team and they are going to take what you give them. Today, we were not as clean as we were (yesterday).”

Freeman allowed just four hits all afternoon in seven innings on the hill while striking out a pair. He did not walk a batter.

Both punch outs came in the third inning behind a devastating curveball and an upstairs fastball.

“He is the best pitcher on our team, his control, his presence. He hadn’t seen Reno all season so having him in our back pocket was huge,” Tucker said of Freeman.

The third and the fifth innings were the Tigers’ two closest chances to net a second run.

Owen Evans nearly legged out a two-out infield hit, which would’ve scored Grayson Kamper from third.

In the fifth, Aaron Moss doubled off the base of the left field wall with one out, but the Tigers’ weren’t able to capitalize.

Despite falling into the consolation bracket, Douglas has had both of its starters throw complete games in the opening two rounds of the postseason.

That’ll give the Tigers a chance to mix and match if they need to over the coming days.

“We’re going to rely on our depth. We are in the third day of our bracket and we’ve only used two guys. With our stable of pitching, … if it comes down to a slugfest, I’ll put our nine up against anybody,” said Tucker. “We’re hoping that what we planned in March will come to fruition over the next few days.”

(Douglas third baseman Grayson Kamper backhands a grounder Wednesday afternoon against Reno. Kamper went 1-for-2 at the plate with a single in the Tigers’ 2-1 loss to the Huskies in the second round of the Class 5A North regional postseason. / Ron Harpin)