Baseball, softball regional playoffs open this week

The Douglas High baseball and softball teams head into the most important part of the season this week with the opening of the Northern 4A Regional playoffs.

The baseball team opens Tuesday at home against Reed, but will be at Manogue Wednesday to play either Manogue or Damonte Ranch.

The softball team will take on McQueen at Manogue Thursday afternoon at noon.

The Lady Tigers come into the playoffs riding a 15-game win streak, having blown past crucial league series against Damonte Ranch and Wooster to close out the regular season.

"You definitely want to have some momentum heading into regional," Douglas coach Andy Mitchell said. "Damonte Ranch was a big confidence builder for us.

They had two really strong pitchers and we hit really well that weekend. It gave us a lot of confidence."

Douglas will run into a very similar opponent in McQueen as the Lancers made a late-season push to clinch the No. 3 seed in the High Desert League.

"We saw them at a scrimmage at the beginning of the year and the two teams are very alike," Mitchell said. "They have one pitcher who carries the bulk of the load for them and they got hot toward the end of the year, so it'll be an interesting matchup."

Mitchell said his team's poise under pressure has been the thing to most stick out this season.

"They don't get too nervous," Mitchell said. "They show up and play the same every game. I don't think we'll prepare any different for this week."

It's that laid-back mentality that helped Douglas on its surprise run through the playoffs last year where the Tigers upset Reno and Reed before losing to Spanish Springs in the title game.

"You really have to try to ignore last year," Mitchell said. "It gives them some confidence, and it shows them that it's doable. But we have to get back to playing it one game at a time. That's all you can do against strong teams is play one inning and one at-bat at a time."

The Tiger baseball team comes in on a two-game losing streak after a coming up on the short end of a pair of epic battles against Reno last week.

This year's playoff field is one of the deepest in several years as six of the eight teams posted more than 20 overall wins this year.

"It really is wide open," Douglas coach John Glover said. "I can't remember another year where it really could be any number of teams walking away with the title. You have Manogue and Reno as the No. 1 seeds, but there are some really talented teams in there."

Douglas is bracketed with Reed, Manogue and Damonte Ranch. The winner of the double-elimination bracket will clinch a berth both in the regional title game Saturday and in the state tournament next week.

Reno, Spanish Springs, Galena and Carson are in the opposite bracket.