Galena keeps rolling in playoffs

RENO - Galena High hitters made a tiny adjustment after the first inning, and then made life miserable for Bishop Manogue.

The favored Grizzlies struck for eight runs in the second, and rolled to a 12-1 victory in the second round of the Northern Nevada 4A Regional playoffs Wednesday afternoon at Bishop Manogue.

The game was called after 4 1/2 innings because of the 10-run rule.

The win puts the Grizzlies one win away from reaching the finals. Galena will face the winner of the Carson-Manogue game today at 4.

"You can't expect it (a 10-run game)," Galena coach Gary McNamara said. "In the first inning, Joe (Weiland, Manogue starter) was effective. He was throwing a lot inside. We made an adjustment to gear up from the middle in.

"Don Price (former Nevada hitting standout) had the guys back off the plate a couple of inches. My hats off to coach Price."

The eight-run second inning was keyed by two errors, which made all the runs unearned, but make no mistake about it Galena hit the ball hard.

"They hit like that all the time," Manogue coach Charles Oppio said. "We had two big errors in the second inning, and you can't give a team like that extra at-bats."

With the score tied at 1 going into the bottom of the second, Basim Azzam reached base on an error and moved to third on a single by Jake Hess, who took second on the throw to third. Winning pitcher Jacob Anderson singled home Azzam to make it 2-1.

After Weiland struck out Matt Evans for the first out, Ryan Howsley followed with a groundball to second which was booted allowing Hess to score to make it 3-1. J.D. Peters, who went 4-for-4 with three doubles, slammed a two-run double to left-center field for a 5-1 lead. Pete Lazzari followed with a run-scoring triple and then scored on Tony Thompson's sacrifice fly for a 7-1 advantage.

"He (Peters) has been doing that all year," McNamara said. "I think he hit something like .612 during the season. He's been our go to guy all year. Yesterday, everybody had a hot day except him. We go as J.D. goes."

"He's an amazing hitter," Thompson said of his teammate, who scored three times and drove in two runs. "He does a good job of getting in scoring position and giving us a chance to come through."

Weiland allowed four straight singles and two more runs before turning the ball over to Jeremy Groves, who inherited a 9-1 deficit. Groves hit a batter to load the bases, but retired Howsley on a pop-up to second to end the barrage.

Groves ran into problems in the third when Peters hit his third double of the game. Lazzari walked, and Thompson playing on an injured knee, slammed a towering homer to left on a 3-0 pitch for a 12-1 edge in the bottom of the third.

"I hurt my knee, but it's not affecting me," Thompson said. "I just go out and play. The 3-0 is my favorite pitch to hit. If it's not there, you walk. If you hit it ... it's a win-win situation."

Anderson worked a scoreless fourth and then gave way to Levi Stafford, who worked a 1-2-3 fifth to end the game.

McNamara said it doesn't matter who the Grizzlies play today.

"I have no preference," he said. "Whoever we play is coming off a win, and we have to do our best to defense that, and that's what matters to us."

McNamara admitted he would love to wrap things up today and have an extra day of rest before facing the winner of the other bracket.

• Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com, or by calling (775) 881-1281