Rangers blast Tigers

By Wyoming Sports.org

GILLETTE -- The Laramie Rangers used the ‘never turn down a freebie’ attitude on Wednesday to open the Wyoming AA State American Legion Baseball Tournament.

Laramie took advantage of nine Torrington errors and thumped the Tigers 15-6 to move into the quarterfinals of the tournament. The Rangers, 24-24, will face the winner of Wednesday night’s Gillette/Evanston contest Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Gillette is the top seed from the East with a 46-9 record.

Laramie led from the start, scoring three runs in the first inning, but used a big five-run fourth inning to break open a close game. The Rangers finished strong with four unanswered runs in the final three innings.

The Tigers surprisingly didn’t go with pitching ace Austen Wisroth and Laramie got to starter Brock Murphy early and often. Unfortunately for Torrington, Murphy wasn’t the problem; its defense was.

The Tigers had two critical errors to begin the game and Laramie catcher Jon Sorenson’s two-run single put the Rangers up 3-0.

After a scoreless second inning, the Rangers added three runs in the third, led by a two-run single by designated hitter Jordan Rhodine.

Torrington did come back against Laramie starting pitcher Coleton Wilson with four runs in the third to cut the lead to 6-5.

That was as close as the Tigers would get, as Laramie pounded out six hits in the fourth to take an 11-5 lead.

The Rangers added two runs in the seventh on no hits and five Torrington errors. Laramie closed the scoring with a pair of runs in the eighth and ninth innings.

Sorenson had an outstanding game for the Rangers, with four singles and three RBI. Although he had just one hit, Rhodine knocked in four runs. Harding finished with three hits, with Jason Rodriguez, Sean Gardea and Mike Garner adding two hits each. Laramie had 15 hits in the game.
Wilson picked up the win on the mound, scattering 10 hits and giving up all six runs. Harding pitched the final two innings.

In the first game of the day, Cheyenne Post 6 blasted Green River 15-1. Post 6 is the seven-time defending state champion.

All Stars rout Alaska

by Wyoming Sports.org

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- The Laramie Little League All-Stars put an exclamation mark on its third-place finish in pool play by crushing Dimond-West Little League of Anchorage, Alaska 14-1 Tuesday to clinch a berth in the Northwest Regional semifinals on Thursday.

Laramie finished 3-1 behind Washington and Oregon, which will clash on Wednesday for the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. Laramie will face the loser of that game Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

After holding off Montana 13-11 on Monday in a big game, the Laramie All-stars came out with added fire, scoring all 14 of its runs in the second inning. Wyoming sent 19 hitters to the plate in that inning.

Dylan Bainer hit a two-run home run for Wyoming. Also pacing the Laramie team were Drew Burman, Tommy Naghtigal and Brian Lopez with two hits each.

Rangers face Torrington in state opener

Richard Anderson photo
The Laramie Rangers hope to do a lot of celebrating after scoring runs this week at the Wyoming AA State American Legion baseball tournament in Gillette.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Going into last weekend’s Western Conference Tournament, the Laramie Rangers AA team had played as well as it had for much of the season.

Laramie didn’t fare as well as it had hoped, placing second with a 2-2 mark. If there is a time to get hot, it needs to be now as the Rangers look to finish strong at the Wyoming AA State Tournament in Gillette.

“I think these last three or four weeks, we’ve made a lot of good progress with our team,” Laramie manager Sean McKinney said. “I think we’re continuing to get better. We won the Scottsbluff tournament and won a few games here and there. We wanted the Number 1 seed in conference, but we didn’t get it. We’ll take the number 2 seed.”

The Rangers (23-24) hit well enough in Rock Springs last weekend, scoring 65 runs in four games. It might take that type of effort at state, which begins Wednesday and will run through Sunday if needed.

“I think, especially in a game like baseball, the team that gets the hottest at the very end will win the tournament,” McKinney said. “You look at Fresno State, they didn’t have very good pitching all year and all of the sudden they come out with guns blazing and win the College World Series. We all have good players and each team has one or two guys who can really throw it and the rest are up in the air. The hitters, when they get hot and can start scoring runs, that’s when good things can happen.”

Laramie, the No. 2 seed form the West, faces Torrington, the No. 3 seed from the East, at noon. Longtime conference rivals, the Rangers and Tigers are in different league’s this season. This will only be the second time the two teams have faced each other this season, the first coming at the Firecracker Tournament in Laramie, an 8-0 Rangers win.

“We knew it was going to be a battle between them and Sheridan for that No. 3 spot. Torrington came out top," McKinney said. “They have three good pitchers in (Austen) Wisroth, (Brock) Murphy and (Beau) Youtz. We’ll face Wisroth, I’m sure. We’ll throw Coley (Wilson), so it will be a battle of No. 1s.”

The Rangers played in the smallish Rock Springs ballpark last weekend where home runs were plentiful. Roughrider Stadium is much larger, like Cowboy Field. McKinney said it will be more about execution, moving runners on the ground.

“We’re going to have to have a great effort by Coley and our defense behind him,” he said. “Torrington is a different team with Wisroth on the mound, just like I think we’re a different team with Coley on the mound. It will be fun. I think that kind of competition and that kind of expectation is what it is all about.”

A win over the Tigers and the Rangers will face the winner of the Gillette-Evanston contest Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Gillette won the East and is 46-9 on the season.

That’s fine with McKinney, as he said you have to beat everybody some time to win the tournament.

“It what the kids really look forward to, as do the coaches,” McKinney said. “This is the best time of the year for us, the weather is beautiful. We’re just excited to see what we can do at the state tournament.”

If Laramie loses, it will face the Gillette-Evanston loser Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

Rangers go 1-1, finish second

By Wyoming Sports.org

ROCK SPRINGS -- The Laramie Rangers AA squad got what they wanted Saturday morning in the Western Conference Tournament - a rematch with Green River and a little revenge.

What the Rangers didn’t want was another loss later in the day. Laramie had to win three games on Saturday to come away with the top seed for next week’s state tournament in Gillette. After crushing the Knights 26-12, the Rangers fell to Rock Springs 19-9 to finish second in the tournament.

The Rangers finished a disappointing 2-2 in the tournament and are 23-24 heading into the state tournament.

After being upset 7-6 on Friday night to Green River, the Rangers took it out on the Knights Saturday morning, pounding out 24 hits as Green River also committed 14 errors.

Rylan Harding paced the Rangers with four singles and six RBI. Coleton Wilson had three hits, including one home run and three RBI, followed by Jon Sorenson with three hits and three RBI, Mike Garner with three hits and two RBI, Mike Hudson with three hits and Jason Rodriguez and Ryan Ivy two hits each. Skyler Joy also had a home run and two RBI.

Jordan Rhodine went the distance for the win on the mound, scattering 12 hits and 12 runs.

Things looked promising for Laramie in its first meeting with Rock Springs this season, as the Rangers took a 4-0 lead with four runs in the top of the third. But Rock Springs answered with five in the bottom of the inning against starting pitcher Max Schoen and added five more in the fourth for a 10-5 lead.

Laramie chipped away with cut the lead to 10-9 with three runs in the top of the eight, only to see Rock Springs rally with nine runs against three Laramie pitchers for the 10-run mercy rule win.

The Mustangs had 25 hits in the game, including four home runs.

Harding had another outstanding game with five hits and two RBI. Sorenson and Ivy both had a pair of hits for the Rangers as well.

Little Leaguers fall to Oregon

Murrayhill Little League of Beaverton, Ore., just kept piling it on the Laramie Little League in the second day of the Northwest Regional in San Bernardino, Calif.

And I mean pouring it on. The Oregon team finished with a 25-14 win over Wyoming in one of the higher scoring West Regional games in tournament history.

The Laramie team hit three more home runs and out pressure on Oregon at times, but couldn't keep Murrayhill from plating runs. Oregon had three big innings in the game, scoring seven runs in the first, seven in the third and six more in the fifth.

Laramie trailed by just a 9-8 score in the second inning an 16-12 going into the fourth. But that was as close as it would get.

Brian Lopez Jr. hit a pair of home runs in the game for Laramie, with Tommy Nachtigal adding a first-team blast that sailed over the tents in center field.

Laramie, 1-1 in the tournament, will look to bounce back Monday against Montana (Boulder-Arrowhead Little League of Billings) at 10:30 a.m.

Green River surprises Rangers AA

By Wyoming Sports.org

ROCK SPRINGS -- The Laramie Rangers AA American Legion baseball team hadn’t played in two weeks. It might have shown in the Western Conference Tournament opener Friday against Green River.

The Rangers were shocked by the Knights 7-6 in the nine-inning game as their hopes for a No. 1 seed going into next week’s state tournament in Gillette were dealt a serious setback. Laramie did bounce back to crush Evanston 24-5 in seven innings.

The last time the Rangers played a game was in an easy doubleheader sweep of the Knights on July 17 at Cowboy Field. There was nothing easy this time around.

Behind starting pitcher Coleton Wilson, Laramie led for most of the game, including 4-3 after seven innings. But Green River scored four times off of reliever Mike Garner in the eighth inning, including a two-run home run by Kelly Garvin that proved to be the game-winner. Garvin and teammate Cameron Otter both had solo home runs earlier in the game in this smallish Rock Springs diamond.

Laramie scored twice in the top of the ninth on a throwing error by the Knights and on a double-play ground ball. Those two outs proved to be critical as Green River pitcher Kyle Calkins got Ryan Ivy to ground out to end the game.

Garner led the 12-hit Laramie attack with three hits and three RBI. Ivy also had three hits in the game for Laramie.

The Rangers, 22-23, took their frustrations out on Evanston later in the afternoon, scoring 15 runs in the first three innings. Laramie belted four home runs in the game, including two jacks by Garner and one each by Jason Rodriguez and Rylan Harding. Garner had seven RBI in the contest as the Rangers finished with 19 hits.

Rodriguez had three hits and five RBI, with Jon Sorenson adding four hits and five RBI. Max Schoen, Mike Hudson and Harding all pitched in the game for Laramie.

Action continues on Saturday at 9 a.m. against the loser of Friday night's Green River-Rock Springs game. Laramie would have to win three games on Saturday get the No. 1 seed.

Rangers A season comes to an end

Richard Anderson photos
Laramie Rangers A first baseman Josh Peterson makes a swipe at a Gillette baserunner Friday at Cowboy Field. At bottom, catcher Nick Armijo talks it over with pitcher Nolan Carter.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Down six runs after one inning, the Laramie Rangers could just never quite catch up, falling to the Gillette Rustlers 13-7 Friday in a loser-out game in the American Legion A District Tournament at Cowboy Field.

The loss ended the Rangers season at 11-22. Laramie opened the tournament with a tough 5-4 loss to Douglas on Thursday.

After a scoreless top of the first inning, Laramie starting pitcher Lance McCartney struggled to get outs, as the Rustlers pounded him for six runs on seven hits in the opening inning.

McCartney was replaced by Nolan Carter, who got the last out of the inning and held Gillette relatively silent until the middle innings before the Rustlers got going again.

“I just told them that you can only control what you can control,” Laramie manager Jeremy Francom said of his team's slow start. “You can’t control the past, you can’t control what happened. You can control what is going to going to happen. That’s what we tried to do for the rest of the game.”

The Rangers were able to chip away, cutting the Gillette lead to 7-4 before the Rustlers scored twice in the fourth and three more times in the fifth for another comfortable lead. Gillette finished with 17 hits in the game against three Laramie pitchers.

“Gillette is a good team; they hit the ball well,” Francom said. “Lance is a fastball pitcher and they hit the fastball really well. We got someone in there who could try to get them some curve balls to look at and he kind of held them off for a little bit. I’m not sure what it was in that first inning. But once we settled down and settled in, we started putting some runs up. But when you give them a six-spot in the top of the first inning, it is hard to rebound from that.”

And Laramie also couldn’t maintain any momentum once it was able to get going offensively.

“We’d score one and give up one; we’d score two and give up two; we’d score two and give up three,” Francom said. “We needed a big defensive stop and just didn’t get it.”

The Rangers did finish with 12 hits in the contest, with first baseman Josh Peterson leading the way with four singles. Tyler Mitchell had a single and triple and one RBI, while Carter and Derek Campbell both had a pair of singles and one RBI each. Zach Kersey also had a RBI double in the game, with Barry Thomas and Nick Armijo chipping in with a triple and single respectively.

Mitchell and Thomas were both named to the all-conference team that was voted on earlier by the league’s coaches.

Despite the tough finish, Francom said he was pleased with how his young team fought back on Friday and with the way it played throughout the season.

“They didn’t quit and they don’t quit. It didn’t matter if we’re down 10 or down five; we have the same mentality, a never-say-die attitude,” he said. “That is one thing that is going to helps these kids in the future, is they don’t quit and they keep going. We have good things to build from.”

Francom added that when you look at their results at the beginning of the season to now, it showed marked improvement.

“We were getting 10-runned at the beginning of the year,” Francom said. “After the game we were talking, and we said, ‘You guys are young and you have to realize you are playing older teams.’ I asked them who was playing Babe Ruth last year and we had 11 of 12 guys raise their hands. This year we got great experience and that is what you need to do to compete at the AA level. I think it is hard of them to see it now, but they definitely got good experience and they came a long way, not only as ball players but as people. They are a great, great bunch of kids and I absolutely enjoyed coaching every last one of them.”

Prep eliminated at State B

The Laramie Rangers Prep team saw its season come to an end, as the Wheatland B squad rolled to a 17-2 win Friday in the loser-out game of the State B Tournament in Sheridan.

Wheatland led 7-2 after three innings but scored 10 times in the fourth to put the game away. Laramie, which had just one hit in the 6-0 loss to Casper on Thursday, had three hits against the Lobos -- singles by Abel Casas, Alex Jordan and Taylor Boggess.

Hunter Wick, Casas, Sam Feldman, Boggess, Kevin Dooley and Jordan all pitched for Laramie.

Laramie finished the season at 13-19.