The Spanish Springs baseball team built a huge early lead and withstood a late Reed rally to post a 17-13 victory in the season-opening Mike Bearman Memorial Tournament Friday.

Spanish Springs cruised out to a 16-0 lead after three innings but its scoring pace fell off a bit from there.

The visiting Cougars still led 16-5 going to the bottom of the fifth and looked like they would put the 10-run mercy rule into effect but Reed rallied for four runs to keep the game going.

Reed did not score in any of the first three innings but then pushed across five in the fourth, four in the fifth and four more in the sixth.

“We’re a young team as every one knows. To be down 16-0 and battle back the way we did, that’s great,” second-year Reed coach Nick Royle said. “We never gave up. Spanish Springs is a good team. It will be fun to see where they are at the end of the year.”

Spanish Springs did the bulk of its offensive damage in the second inning when it pushed across 12 runs. Kyle Clark highlighted the Cougars rally with a deep blast to left field that went for a three-run homer. Anthony Vierra tacked on a three-run triple in the outburst.

SSHS sophomore Chase Kittilsen pitched the first three and a third innings and earned the win. He gave up three runs, all earned, while scattering 4 hits in the five-strikeout two-walk outing.

“It’s always nice to get up on somebody like we were early, but with the wind and cold weather that way I kind of had a sneaking suspicion it was not going to hold,” said Spanish Springs assistant coach Ben Hofmann, who was handling the Cougars managing chores with SSHS coach Mike Bosco gone on a personal matter. “There were a lot of pop ups that found ground. It’s one of those things where you don’t want to embarrass anybody early in a game, but also in the back of your mind, you know its’ early and it’s northern Nevada baseball. Even up 12-13, that may not be enough.”

Reed concludes its tournament run today with a 1 p.m. game against Lowry.

“We’re young and we’re going to have to live with making some mistakes, but we’re going to get better,” Royle said. “It may take us all the way to the final (league) series before we put it all together, but we’ll get there. It just may take longer than most people want.”

Spanish Springs (3-0) wraps up tournament pool play today against McQueen at 1 p.m. at Reno High. A win would put the SSHS-nine into the tourney championship game at 4 p.m. at Reno.

“We’ve had a couple (opposing) coaches tell us, ‘your kids really battle with two strikes,’ and that’s nice to hear,” Hofmann said. “We may strike out sometimes but, we’re not going to make it easy. I look at the book and we only had a handful of strikeouts. We’ve scored a lot of runs. It’s nice to know we will battle up and down the line up and make teams play defense.”

- Spanish Springs 20, Lowry 7 -

The Cougars offense was way too much for its 3A opponent from Winnemucca. Spanish Springs led 3-0 after three innings but blew the game open with a 12-run fourth.

The Cougars did their damage in the big inning thanks to five hits, four walks and two hit batters. Alex Vetter had the big knock in the inning. He tripled with the bases loaded. Anthony Vierra added a two-run double in the frame.

Spanish Springs led 16-7 in the bottom of the sixth when junior Tanner Oates blasted a grand slam to implement the 10-run mercy rule and end the preseason tournament affair.

Tyler Eaton worked the first four innings on the mound for Spanish Springs. He allowed four runs while striking out five and walking one en route to collecting the pitching win.

- Douglas 16, Reed 0 -

The Raiders had a tough time handling Douglas Friday evening, getting saddled with the lopsided loss in a four-inning game at home.

Reed gave up a run in the first inning to trail 1-0 early.

Douglas then handed Reed two six-run innings, in the second and third, to take a commanding lead, 13-0.

It started to rain and the teams battled through one more final inning, with Douglas putting up three more for the 16-0 final.

Reed came away with only one hit against the Tigers. Jason Stroberg knocked out a double in the second inning but was put out on a double play.

Adam Bollingbroke and Spencer Jones handled two innings each on the mound for the Raiders.