The climb toward the upper tier of the Northern 4A Zone standings continued on Tuesday for the Douglas High baseball team. The Tigers defeated Fallon High 8-4 to improve their season record to 9-9 and move within one game of the fifth-place Greenwave (10-8) in the zone standings.
Douglas, which started out its season 2-6, has won eight of its last 11 games to move back into solid contention for one of the zone's eight playoff berths.
"It has been a combination of everything: our pitching has picked up, we've played good solid defense and we've hit the ball pretty well," said Tiger coach Fred Bendure on his team's recent improved play.
Douglas' pitching, defense and hitting were all effective against the Greenwave. The Tigers received a complete-game performance from pitcher Jared Silveira, the Douglas defense didn't commit an error, and the team recorded 10 hits during the contest, including home runs by Bobbie Lee and Kyle Wentz.
The homers by Lee and Wentz - both two-run shots - came in the fourth and helped the Tigers break open what had been a close 3-1 game. Wentz finished the game 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs.
"That was the big inning for us," Bendure said.
Silveira struck out eight Greenwave batters during his winning performance. Jake Lewis started the game for Fallon and was tagged with the loss.
Other Tiger batters with RBI hits included Shane Cauley, Ryan Haltom and Austin Graham. Chris Murray and Graham both recorded doubles.
Douglas will host Carson in another important Northern 4A Zone game on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The Senators are 13-5 and in third place in the zone standings, four games ahead of the Tigers. Likely to start on the mound for the Tigers will be Wentz.
Sparks High will then be in town on Saturday for a doubleheader at 10 a.m.
"We're just taking it one game at a time," Bendure said.