RENO - After hanging a nine-spot on the Wooster Colts in the 30-minute top half of the first inning Thursday afternoon, one might have thought it was going to be easy sailing for the Douglas High baseball team.
But this being Northern Nevada high school baseball, the Colts had plenty of time to chip away at the lead.
Wooster made things interesting before the Tigers were able to close out a 14-9 win to improve to 9-1 in Sierra League play this season.
Jordan Hadlock (two triples, two RBIs and 3-for-5 at the plate), Nate Whalin (3-for-3, two doubles, one triple and an RBI) and Willie Morgan (2-for-4, three RBIs) led the Tigers at the plate, and Tyler May helped out his own effort on the mound with two RBI to take the win.
Douglas jumped out to the early lead after scoring nine runs with two outs in the first. Wooster was able to answer with four runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning.
The Tigers pushed their lead with a run in the top of the third and three in the top of the fifth.
Wooster brought three more across in the bottom half on May to close within13-7, ending his afternoon with three strikeouts and four walks.
Pat Lahlum came on and struck out two to get out of the inning, but the Colts were able to tack on two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to close within four.
Wyatt Graham pinch hit with two outs and one on in the top of the seventh and knocked a run-scoring double to right, giving Douglas an insurance run before Hadlock came on to record three strikeouts in the bottom half of the inning to close out the game.
Cory Eilers finished with two RBI for Douglas while Niko Saladis and Tim Rudnick each had one.
Saladis stole two bases in the game and Hadlock stole one.
The two teams meet up for a doubleheader at Douglas High Saturday at 10 a.m.
DOUGLAS SOFTBALL 5, WOOSTER 1
Stephanie Harper went the distance for Douglas (11-7, 4-3) to pick up the win, striking out seven while allowing four hits.
The Tigers scored three runs in the seventh to take a 5-1 lead. Nicole LaPorte and Emily Weaver singled and Donna Judd and Tisha Luken followed with RBI singles. Katrina Morgan's RBI sacrifice fly capped the rally.
Douglas took a 1-0 lead in the first on Luken's RBI double. The Tigers went up 2-1 in the fourth on Harper's RBI single. Luken and Marina Diaz each had two hits and Morgan added a hit.