Douglas and Reed had formed a little postseason rivalry the past couple years, meeting four times in the past two Northern 4A Region baseball tournaments.

But with the Raiders out of the playoff picture for the first time in over 25 years, it's only suiting that the rivalry the Tigers formed with the Raiders will continue with the other Rail City school.

Spanish Springs, the No. 4 seed from the High Desert League, will get a crack at upsetting the Sierra League champions today when it opens regional play in Minden against Douglas.

The Cougars and Tigers last met in the playoffs during the 2005 season when the Purple and Teal rolled to a regional crown. However, the squads have not faced off this year.

Still, SSHS coach Mike Bosco knows how good Douglas is.

"Douglas is the best team in a very good division," he said. "We haven't played them this year but we have some information that will be helpful. They don't have a weak link in their game. They score runs, pitch and play defense. We don't believe their bullpen is that strong so if we could swing the bats early and knock out their guy, we will have a chance."

It's clear how talented the Tigers (26-7-1, 15-3 SL) are and they have momentum on their side, riding a double-digit game win streak. Douglas has not lost since the middle of April when it dropped an Easter tournament clash to Bishop Gorman, one of the top teams in the country.

Since then, Douglas has swept its last three league series against Bishop Manogue, South Tahoe and Carson. The Miners and Senators are the fourth and second seeds from the Sierra League respectively.

The Minden school also took two out of three games in a non-league series with Reno. The Huskies went 18-0 in the High Desert League, so the Tigers are a team to watch.

On the other hand, Spanish Springs (16-15, 10-8 HDL) is not riding a wave of momentum and just finished a rocky HDL series in which McQueen took the No. 2 seed by winning the series.

But it wasn't the bats that were lacking against the Lancers as the Cougars tallied 32 runs in the three-game set. Bosco believes that could be the key to taking down Douglas.

"Our struggle this year has been playing hard for seven innings and staying out of the big inning," Bosco said. "We will need our starter (pitcher) Tyler Eaton to have his best stuff and then play solid defense behind him. We can swing the bats with anyone in the North but we'll need to find a way to stop Douglas from scoring runs. We can beat them if we play a perfect game, and we are capable of doing that."

Douglas is led by a couple of seniors atop its starting pitching rotation. They also happen to share the same first name.

Tyler May has 20 wins in his career - tied with former major leaguer Shawn Estes for most at the school - and Tyler Hoelzen is tough on batters as well. May also leads the team in home runs.

Spanish Springs' pitchers are young, but Bosco expects his players to be up for the game.

"I don't think nerves will be a factor in the game," Bosco said. "Maybe the first time through the lineup seeing their pitcher but our team is looking forward to the challenge of playing one of the best teams in the North."

Damonte Ranch at McQueen makes up the other half of Spanish Springs' bracket. On the other side, Reno will host Manogue and Wooster will go to Carson. All games are scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

The playoffs will continue Wednesday with the losers facing off at 1 p.m. and the winners' matchups coming at 4 p.m. Reno High and Wooster High will host games after the first round.