Douglas rolls into 5A-North Regional championship game; Tigers earn berth at state

The Douglas High softball team earned its title as defending state champs with a long, successful postseason run last spring. They still look every bit the part.

The latest example came Friday afternoon with a 10-0 romp over North rival Spanish Springs.

The Tigers needed only five innings to enact the mercy rule and capture an easy win in the semifinal of the Northern 5A Tournament hosted at Bishop Manogue High School. With the win, Douglas advances into Saturday’s tourney championship at noon and clinched a berth into next week’s state tournament.

“These girls are ready to go,” Douglas coach Jon Glover said. “They did a good job today in a big game being ready to go — in all three phases. I thought we were good at the plate. We pitched well and we were clean on defense. In these types of games, that has to happen if you want to win.

“I expect to see the same team tomorrow. They compete. They’ve had a businesslike approach all year. If you can’t be ready for a game like this next one, you probably shouldn’t show up.”

Spanish Springs is still alive in the double-elimination event and will face Bishop Manogue Saturday at 10 a.m. in a loser-out affair. The winner earns another date with Douglas and will have to beat the Minden school twice to hoist a regional title trophy.

Douglas 10, Spanish Springs 0

The top-seeded Tigers (29-4) broke open the tournament tilt in the third inning. Already leading 1-0, Marissa McClelland reached on a fielder’s choice. She went to second on a wild pitch and when an errant throw sailed into the outfield, McClelland came all the way around to score. Talia Tretton followed with a double. She crossed the plate when Douglas DH Lilyann Lee sent a ball over the right-field wall for a two-run dinger and a 4-0 Tigers edge.

“That was really big,” Lee said. “Once I hit it and saw it go out, I was like ‘let’s go. We got this.’ It was a big moment for me. I’ve been in a little slump. When you hit one of those, that unloads a lot of stress. That can help get us to state.”

Spanish Springs was never in contention again. The Cougars failed to score in the top of the fourth and the Douglas offense went right back to work. It got a little help with some lackluster defensive play from the Cougars, that included two errors and a pair of foul balls that hit the ground and could’ve been outs.

Maddie Gooch bashed a solo homer to left to start a six-run, fourth-inning rally for the Tigers. Next, Ava Delaney walked and McClelland singled. Both came around to score when Tretton drilled her second double of the postseason contest. Annie Hill walked and Zora Simpson was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Tretton and Lee circled the sacks on a Mercedes Covey double and Simpson wrapped up the inning by crossing the plate on an RBI groundout by Peyton Simpson.

Tretton, a first-team all-state pick a year ago as a junior turned in another gem in the pitching circle. The standout University of Iowa-bound hurler fired five scoreless, giving up just one hit to Spanish Springs while striking out six. She hit two Cougars but did not issue a walk.

Spanish Springs No. 7 hitter, Hannah Fitzpatrick had the one hit for the Cougars (29-6), a second-inning single.

“We didn’t play well,” veteran Spanish Springs coach Jeff Davidson said. “We didn’t play well defensively at all … You can’t make those mistakes and you can’t give good teams extra opportunities. We did that today and they took advantage.

“Tomorrow’s game at 10 a.m. is very important. We have to refocus. We must have a short-term memory. We didn’t play well today, but we have to flush that and let it go.”

Bishop Manogue 3, McQueen 1

A trio of first-inning runs proved to be all the offense Bishop Manogue (24-10) would need to stay alive in a late-afternoon regional tournament battle against McQueen.

Bishop Manogue’s sophomore ace Kaylee Sanchez scattered five McQueen hits and limited the Northwest Reno school to just a single run - that came in the sixth inning. Sanchez was stellar in the circle, collecting 11 strikeouts without giving up a walk.

Sis King, Selah Greene, Kiki Harris and Averie Stephan all finished with a pair of hits to pace the third-seeded Miners offense at the plate.

Bishop Manogue had beaten Galena 15-0 earlier Friday to even get into the losers’ bracket game against McQueen.

“Now, we have to play the best game we’ve ever played when we see Spanish Springs tomorrow morning. That’s the way we look at it,” Miners coach Chris King said. “It’s going to take everything we have, but I love our girls and I know they’ll be ready."

Class 3A-North

Fallon beat North Valleys, 5-1 to advance to the championship game on Saturday.

Also on Friday, Fernley beat Lowry, 10-9, in eight innings to stay alive.

The Vaqueros will play North Valleys at 9 a.m. Saturday with that winner advancing to face Fallon at 11:30 a.m.

This article originally appeared on Reno Gazette Journal: Douglas rolls into 5A-North Regional championship game; Tigers earn berth at state