Softball: Douglas splits with Damonte Ranch

Douglas softball coach Andy Mitchell couldn't help but feel like he was looking at a pair of different teams Saturday morning.

On one side, Damonte Ranch was getting a number of players back for the first time this season and looked strong and crisp during pre-game warm-ups. On the other ... well he really wasn't sure what he was seeing.

"I think we psyched ourselves out before the game even started," Mitchell said. "They were getting three good players back and we watched them warm up and maybe started thinking that's a different team out there. We looked intimidated, we needed to be confident and we didn't get the start we needed."

Just two days on the heels of Douglas' 12-0 win over the Mustangs in Reno, Damonte Ranch ran away with a 10-0 win in the first game of a doubleheader in Minden. Douglas turned things back around in the afternoon, taking a 6-0 win to improve to 11-6 overall and 9-2 in league play.

"I've never seen a series like this," Mitchell said. "Three shutouts with such a wide scoring range. The first game today was probably the worst game we've had in my time here. Between games we just told them to learn from what happened, and put it behind us. I was really proud of how they came out in the second game. They responded really well."

Douglas put together six hits in the first game, but couldn't translate that into any runs. Damonte took advantage of four Tigers errors to put six unearned runs on the board en route to the win.

In the first inning of game two, Maddy Gilbert reached on an error and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Mia Townsell. After a single from Morgan Blomstrom, Rebecca Trute doubled to bring two runs across.

In the second inning, Naomi Roberts singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Ali Murray. Brenna White doubled to bring Roberts across and Gilbert grounded into a fielder's choice that allowed White to score.

In the bottom of the third, Murray hit a bases-loaded single to bring two runs across and complete the scoring on the day.

Stephanie Harper pitched all 12 innings on the day, striking out six.

Douglas was dealt a tough blow in the first game when catcher Katrina Morgan injured her shoulder sliding into third base. The team will head to Las Vegas this week for a tournament and will have the following week off.

"We've got a couple players that have been hurting, so we'll be looking to get some people healthy over the next two weeks and get some good experience for some other players on the team," Mitchell said.