Douglas Locks Up Third Place In District 8A-11 With Shutout Of Piper

The Douglas Eagles were facing a potential situation Thursday afternoon that they do not normally find themselves in. The Eagles had already lost out on the top two seeds in District 8A-11 this season, and a loss to Piper would mean Douglas would go into the playoffs as the four seed.

Senior lefty John Valek made sure that wouldn’t happen with a three-hit masterpiece, and the Eagles bats exploded in the fifth inning to break open a tight 2-0 game. In the end, the Eagles had avenged an earlier loss to the Bengals with a 10-0 victory.

“Obviously Johnny is Johnny,” said Eagles head coach Todd Fitz-Gerald. “He throws strikes, he’s going to be around the zone…every time we run him out there, our guys feel real comfortable. He works with a real good tempo, which keeps our defense on our toes. Having him out there to help us control the pace of the game is key. He did a good job for us today. He’s had a great year.”

Valek was on cruise control the entire day. With both teams appearing flat early for the district match-up, Valek and Piper starter Zach Crosno both took shutouts into the third inning. Douglas scored its first run of the game on a walk, a hit batter, an intentional walk and an RBI fielder’s choice ground out by Michael Greenberg.

In the fourth, the Eagles added to their lead with a solo home run off the bat of Luis Silvero. In the fifth, the Douglas base-runners broke out their track shoes to break the game open. Crosno looked like he would escape the fifth with just one run scored, but two-out RBI hits by Chris Pannell, Silvero, Ryan Rudolph and KJ Mayo ended the eight-run inning and the game.

Douglas had nine stolen bases on the day. Tony Gallo, the designated runner for catcher Derek Fritz, had three of the stolen bases, and Mayo added two of his own.

“We’ve talked to our pitchers many times about varying their looks,” said Piper assistant coach Tommy Collaro. Opposing-team stolen bases have become a recurring problem for the Bengals defense this season.

“A lot of those guys over there can run, they’re smart base-runners, and when they see we are not doing a good job of holding runners and throwing and catching the ball, they’re going to take advantage of that. Today, we didn’t give our catcher much of a chance, and when we he did throw the ball, we didn’t catch it.”

On the other side, the Piper offense did not get much of an opportunity to show their base-running skills. Valek allowed only three Bengals’ hitter to reach base on the afternoon.

“Coming into this game, we definitely didn’t want to have a performance like the last time we played them (a 3-2 Piper win),” Valek said. “We started off a little slow, but we kept grinding. It was really a team effort. Hopefully, with this win and the way we’ve been playing lately, we can carry that momentum into the playoffs.”

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