Baseball: Douglas advances to semifinals with win over Damonte Ranch

Two games into the Northern 4A Regional Baseball Tournament, the potent Douglas offense of the regular season has yet to really show up.

Still, the Tigers are is sitting exactly where they wanted it to be -- in the winner's bracket, one win away from the regional title game.

Tyler May hit a solo home run on Damonte Ranch pitcher Cody Steven's first pitch of the game and Tyler Hoelzen pitched a shutout gem as Douglas picked up a 5-0 win Wednesday afternoon in round two of the zone playoffs at Wooster High School.

Hoelzen struck out 10 and walked two, scattering five hits in the complete game win against a Mustang offense that hung 13 runs on McQueen the day prior.

"Tyler Hoelzen just threw a great game today," Douglas coach John Glover said. "He really gave us the outing we needed in game two. I couldn't be more proud of the kid."

May's 12th home run of the year got Douglas off to a quick start but Stevens settled down to allow just four more hits in the game. It was the second day in a row the Tigers had five hits.

"I think we are still struggling a bit at the plate," Glover said. "Damonte has some great pitchers, but we have to get the bats going.

"We're getting closer. I saw a better approach today. I saw better at-bats then yesterday. Hopefully we'll start getting some hits involved."

Troy Torres led the top of the second off with a walk and Jeff Crozier singled to right to put runners on first and second for the Tigers. Shane Fencl grounded out but moved Torres and Crozier up, leaving first base vacant.

Damonte elected to intentionally walk May, loading the bases, and Beau Davis grounded into a fielder's choice, which allowed Torres to score while May was thrown out at second.

Tim Rudnick was hit by a pitch on the following at-bat, re-loading the bases and Hoelzen singled up the middle to score Crozier and Davis. Rudnick later scored on a blown pickoff attempt at third for what would prove to be the final run of the game.

"We got guys on base there and got a couple of timely hits," Glover said. "We'll take it right now."

Douglas will take on the winner of Damonte Ranch-McQueen at 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon at Wooster.