Rangers earn Sunday sweep

Richard Anderson photo

Laramie left fielder Coleton Wilson is congratulated by teammates after scoring against Sand Creek Sunday in the Dooley Oil Classic American Legion baseball tournament at Cowboy Field. Laramie won a pair of games, beating Sand Creek 21-2 and Boulder County 11-9.

Laramie finishes 3-2 in Dooley Oil Classic

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The Laramie Rangers couldn’t have been more disappointed and pleased at the same time with how they played Saturday night in the tough 1-0 loss to Dothan, Ala.

On Sunday, the pain turned to pleasure with a pair of wins in the Dooley Oil Classic at Cowboys Field, as Laramie crushed Sand Creek (Colorado Springs, Colo.) 21-2 in five innings and then held off Boulder County (Colo.) 11-9 in the final game of the tournament.

Laramie finished 3-2 in the tournament, winning three of its last four games.

“We’re pretty happy with the way our ball club is playing right now,” Laramie manager Sean McKinney said. “We’re pitching it well, we’re hitting with runners in scoring position and we’re making plays behind the guys. I like where we are at.”

Talk at Cowboy Field on Sunday still centered on Saturday night’s outstanding game. Dothan scored the game’s only run in the top of the seventh on a suicide squeeze bunt and Laramie loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom half of the inning, but couldn’t score as the Alabama ace pitcher Karsten Whiston struck out two Rangers and got a ground ball to end the threat.

The Rangers shook off the loss and had a solid two games on Sunday.

“That Alabama game was one of the greatest games that I have ever been a part of,” McKinney said. “We could have beaten them. We were one run away from that and then we win the tournament. It was one of those things that the kids responded. I think the mark of a good team is to come back after an emotional, tough game like that and beat two very good teams. And we did that.

“We really played well against the first team (Sand Creek) and Boulder is always really solid and we got them too. We played really well when we needed to.”

Laramie, which is now 10-18 on the season, is 5-5 in the last two weeks (including the strong Rapid City tournament), losing three one-run games.

In the first game of Sunday, the Rangers spotted Sand Creek a run in the top of the first, but came back to score seven times in the bottom of the frame and led 11-1 after two innings. Laramie then closed strong, with a 10-1 edge in the final two innings.

Laramie finished with 15 hits in the game, led by Skyler Joy's three hits and two RBI. Jon Sorenson, Mike Garner and Jason Rodriguez all had two hits each, with Rodriguez knocking in four runs.

Max Schoen pitched three innings for the win, with Mike Hudson going the final two innings.

The Rangers, however, got off to a slow start against Boulder County when Sorenson, making his first pitching start of the season, walked the first three batters and then gave up a bases-clearing double. McKinney quickly brought in Garner and Garner got out of the jam without any further damage, pitching into the fifth with an 8-4 lead.

Boulder County chipped away at the Rangers and made a little closer at the end with three runs in the seventh, but Joy got a final ground ball out to end any comeback hopes by the Tigers.

“Sorenson, we want him to be a starter sometime and this was his first opportunity,” McKinney said. “I’m sure he was a little nervous and tired from the weekend. But that will come … he’s still a young guy; he still has to work on getting ready for games like this. But we’ll keep working with him and get him ready."

Garner pitched four innings and gave up three hits and just one earned run.

“Mike Garner pretty much saved that game," McKinney said. "We didn’t want to put him in until the third inning, but he came in and pitched so well, keeping us in the game, giving us a chance to win it.”

Laramie had just seven hits in the game, with Wilson leading the way with two hits and two RBI. The Rangers did take advantage of six Boulder County errors and eight walks.

The Rangers will stay home again next week, hosting the annual Laramie Firecracker Tournament Thursday through Sunday at Cowboy Field.

This past weekend proved to be a good weekend for American Legion baseball and McKinney sees more of the same in next week’s future.

“We had a great time,” McKinney said. “I want to thank the parents who helped out. I want to thank Mike Malloy and a couple of his guys. Without Mike and the parents, we couldn’t have gotten this done. I appreciate their help and I appreciate the kids with their hard work.

“We played good baseball; there were a lot of good teams here. I think it was good for this town and we’re ready to do it again next weekend.”

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Rangers Prep splits in tourney

By Wyoming Sports.org

FORT COLLINS -- The Laramie Rangers Prep American Legion baseball team had an up and down first day of the Nothern Colorado Rookie League Tournament, winning its first game over the Longmont Vipers 6-1, before losing to the FC Hawks 5-2.

Laramie returns to action Sunday in the double-elimination tournament when it faces the Rocky Mountain Titans at 9:30 a.m.

Laramie manager VerDon Hoopes was especially pleased with his young team’s play against Longmont.

“It was one of the best games that we have played all year,” Hoopes said. “Alex (Jordan) pitched fantastic, giving up two hits in seven innings. It was just what we needed him to do. We made great defensively plays behind him everywhere, but particularly Taylor Boggess in center field. He made a couple of really nice catches.”

Abel Casas led Laramie with a pair of doubles, with Dylan Watson, Tyler Warren, Sam Feldman, Brady Olson and Jordan all contributing RBI hits. Tyler Loose also had a single for Laramie.

In the second game, Laramie committed six errors and fell to the Hawks, a team it had played well against earlier in the season.

“We just couldn’t get it going,” Hoopes said. “We got good enough pitching from Sam (Feldman) and Dylan (Watson), but we made too many errors and we struggled to hit the ball. We just couldn’t get it going for some reason. I don’t know if we overlooked them. We just weren’t sharp.”

Kevin Dooley had a pair of hits for Laramie, as did Warren. Loose had the lone RBI.

The Titans are the top seed of the tournament. If Laramie wins that game, it will have to beat the Hawks twice.

Rangers come up short

Richard Anderson photo
Laramie coach Kyle Deck congratulates Mike Garner after Garner made a nice defensive play against Dothan, Ala., Saturday at Cowboy Field.

Alabama team edges Laramie 1-0

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Here’s some coffee-shop debate: Has there ever been a better baseball game at Cowboy Field than Saturday’s 1-0 win by Dothan, Ala., over the Laramie Rangers in the Dooley Oil Classic American Legion baseball tournament at Cowboy Field?

Laramie manager Sean McKinney doesn’t think so. He just wishes his team could have completed the rally in the bottom of the seventh inning to get the victory.

The Rangers loaded the bases with no outs against Dothan ace Karsten Whiston, with the middle of their lineup yet to come to plate. But Whiston, who went into the seventh inning with a no-hitter, struck out Laramie slugger Mike Garner, as well as left fielder Ryan Ivy, before getting designated hitter Mike Hudson to ground out to third base to end the game.

Dothan, a select team that has appeared in two of the last four American Legion World Series, scored the game’s only run on a squeeze play in the top of the seventh.

“That is by far one of the greatest games that I have ever been a part of,” McKinney said. “I told these kids that this was one of the greatest games this field has ever seen. With the effort they gave, the way my kids played, my heart goes out to them. I’m so proud of them, yet I wish they could have won that game. I’d given anything for them to win that.”

Laramie starting pitcher Coleton Wilson might have pitched his best game as a Ranger. Yet, he was still out-done by Whiston, who walked just one (intentionally) and struck out eight.

“It’s about as good as I can pitch,” Wilson said. “If we would have won, that would have been better. I felt like I did pretty well tonight.”

Wilson, who beat the defending California state champions, Merced, last week in Rapid City, gave up just four hits, walking two and striking out one. Dothan didn’t have a base runner go past second until the final inning.

“Coley Wilson has really come to life in the last couple of starts,“ McKinney said. “We’re seeing what he is capable of. He pitched about as good as he has ever pitched.”

Dothan’s lone run came in the seventh when Trye Larry walked, stole second and moved to third on a balk. Larry then scored when pinch-hitter Robert Anderson squeezed him home.

“It’s tough to lose a game like that,” Wilson said. “We had the bases loaded and no outs, and they ended up pulling through. They did a good job, but we have to find a way to get out of there.”

The Rangers, still without a hit, had a little fight in them, but couldn’t quite get over the hump against Whiston. Second baseman Rylan Harding led off and was hit by a pitch. Shortstop Skyler Joy then lifted a flyball between left and center fields for a double. Whiston walked Laramie catcher Jon Sorenson intentionally before getting out of the colossal jam.

“We let the first guy go ahead and swing, he’s a great flyball hitter,” McKinney said. “The next guy up, we wanted him to squeeze in there, but a lot of things happened before that. We had our opportunities.”

Dothan (27-10), which traveled with basically a second team in the dugout, didn’t play its best players in its previous two games -- an 11-5 win over Wheatland and a 4-1 loss to Sand Creek just before the Laramie game.

McKinney said Dothan played its “A” team against them, with its “A” pitcher.

“When you play against a team that has been to the World Series for two of the last four years, and the kids compete like that, gosh, there’s nothing else I can say about how proud I am of them,” McKinney said.

“There’s five hits in the game with one run: two ace pitchers, only one error. That’s great baseball. We’re devastated that we came out on the wrong end. But we were right there.”

The Rangers (8-18) will look to finish strong on Sunday when it faces Sand Creek at 4:30 p.m. Laramie is also scheduled to take on Boulder County at 7 p.m. Dothan and Cheyenne Post 6 will play in the title game at 9 a.m.

Rangers bounce back

Richard Anderson photo
Laramie Rangers manager Sean McKinney waives home Rylan Harding Friday night from third base against the Colorado Bandits in the Dooley Oil Classic Tournament at Cowboy Field.

Laramie uses seven-run fifth for big win

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The Laramie Rangers know the feeling, having had the misfortune of giving up big innings to opponents, including Thursday night in the 10-run loss to Wheatland.

Laramie, however, turned the tables Friday night with a seven-run fifth inning that propelled it to a 12-4 win against the Bandits in six innings.

The Rangers said it felt good to be the giver of bad news instead of the recipient, especially being able to score with two outs. Five of the seven runs in the fifth inning for Laramie came with two outs.

“We’ve had that happen to us a lot, so it feels good to get to the other side,” Laramie shortstop Skyler Joy said. “Even though there are two outs, you take the same approach and they still have to get the third one (out) on you.”

Deadlocked in a 4-4 tussle, Laramie took advantage of a couple of Bandits mistakes and pieced together several big hits to break the game open. The Rangers watched Wheatland do the same to them the night earlier, albeit on a larger scale with the aluminum bats compared to the wood bats on Friday night.

The Rangers remembered the consequences by trying to forget.

“They had a very short memory and they came out with the attitude that they were going to play hard and play tough,” Laramie manager Sean McKinney said. “I’m so proud of the kids. I credit the kids for how they came out tonight. Now, we need to take that attitude to our game tomorrow.”

Thursday’s loss to Wheatland was the third in four games against the Lobos. Joy said it was more embarrassing than frustrating.

“We were excited to get back after them, but things just didn’t go our way and we made a couple of bad plays and didn’t hit the ball two well. It was good to get back,” Joy said. “It’s certainly a humbling sport. You can have a bad day and the sun comes up again and you can have a great day. Hopefully, we can keep this going against Alabama … they are a good team, so we’ll see what we can do.”

After the Laramie pitching staff gave up 21 hits to Wheatland the night before, starter Srihari Sritharan struggled early, giving up three runs and six hits in the first three innings. But Sritharan settled down and gave up just one more run in the next two innings as Laramie found its offensive game.

“I want to credit Srihari. He pitched a great game, even tough he started off a little shaky,” McKinney said. “He kept us in it. When you allow just four runs at this level, it’s a great night.”

Mike Garner came on to pitch the final scoreless inning. Despite picking up the victory, Sritharan wasn’t pleased with how he started the game.

“I think I took a little too long to get there, get to the strike zone,” Sritharan said. “I can’t take three innings to warm up and start throwing strikes. I have to come out and be ready to go.”

Sritharan, however, like the idea of pitching in a wood-bat tournament.

“Things are a little slower and they don’t hit the ball as hard,” Sritharan said. “It’s more of a mental thing; I don’t mind it as much, actually.”

The Rangers finished with 11 hits in the contest, with Joy and Coleton Wilson leading the way with three hits each. Joy had three RBI and second baseman Rylan Harding added two RBI.

“Yesterday, we kind of had a rough day,” Joy said. “Wheatland came out and put 21 on us. We felt like we needed to come out with a little more fire and maybe turn around and get some runs on our side of the ball. I think we did a good job of putting the ball in play and playing defense behind our pitcher. Everything came together.”

The wood-bat format is a return to a more purist form of baseball, something that McKinney is excited to play. It seemed to do the trick for the Rangers Friday night.

“I love wood bats and I love to get players in motion; you can run, bunt and run and double steal. That’s a great part of baseball,” McKinney said. “I think it helps get the kids loose. It worked out for us, as we got the big hits when we needed them.”

Laramie will look to keep the momentum Saturday night at 7 p.m. against Dothan, Ala., which beat Wheatland earlier in the day, 11-5. Dothan has qualified for the American Legion World Series in two of the last four years.

“It was fun watching them,” McKinney said. “They are a solid team and they do a lot of things right. We just have to play well. With Coley (Wilson) on the mound and with the way we hit the ball tonight, we should beat anyone. We’re going to go right after them and not back down. I look at this as a great opportunity to play a great team, so we’re going to go at it with everything that we got.”

Thursday’s Game
Wheatland 21, Laramie 11 (five innings)
Friday’s Games
Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs) vs. Sand Creek (Colorado Springs), late
Cheyenne Mountain 9, State Farm (Boulder) 3
Dothan, Ala. 11, Wheatland 5
Wheatland 4, Colorado Bandits (Denver) 1
Laramie 12, Colorado Bandits 4
Saturday’s Games
9 a.m. -- State Farm vs. Cheyenne Post 6
11:30 a.m. -- State Farm vs. Sand Creek
2 p.m. -- Cheyenne Mountain vs. Cheyenne Post 6
4:30 p.m. -- Dothan vs. Colorado Bandits
7 p.m. -- Laramie vs. Dothan
Sunday’s Games
9 a.m. -- Cheyenne Post 6 vs. Sand Creek
11:30 a.m. -- Match play: Fourth-place finishers in each pool
2 p.m. -- Match play: Third-place finishers in each pool
4:30 p.m. -- Match play: Second-place finishers in each pool
7 p.m. -- Match play: First-place finishers in each pool

Lobos crush Rangers

Richard Anderson photo
Laramie Rangers first baseman Mike Garner looks to make a play defensively behind a Wheatland baserunner Thursday night in the first game of the Dooley Oil Classic at Cowboy Field. The hard-hitting Lobos ran past the Rangers 21-11 in five innings.

Wheatland pounds out 21 hits in big win

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Don’t be fooled by its size. Wheatland may be a Class A team in the state of Wyoming, but the Lobos are rating an A+ when it comes to hitting the baseball against high-level programs.

Thursday night was a prime example, as the Lobos pounded out 21 hits in thumping the AA Laramie Rangers, 21-11 in the first game of the Dooley Oil Classic at Cowboy Field.

That’s 21 hits in just five innings.

Veteran Wheatland manager Mick Cochran said the Lobos came to this four-day tournament a little short-handed pitching-wise, so he said they had to step it up at the plate.

“In order to beat Laramie or compete in this tournament, we’re going to have to score a lot of runs,” Cochran said. “We focused on hitting a lot of singles and putting the ball in play; challenging them and making them make plays, just driving the ball in the gap. We got the job done once we got runners on base.”

Wheatland seemed to thrive against Laramie pitching with two outs, consistently putting pressure on the Rangers with big hits.

“We scored a ton of one runs today with two outs,“ Cochran said. “That’s just a credit to our kids’ focus and really understanding the pitcher and understanding what their approach needs to be. They got the job done.”

It was Wheatland’s third win in four games against the Rangers this season, including a tough 6-5 victory last Sunday in the final day of the Rapid City, S.D., tournament. In that tourney, the Lobos were 4-1.

Laramie manager Sean McKinney was pleased with how his team played last week in Rapid City, but was not real happy with Thursday’s performance. At the same time, he said you have to tip your hat to the Lobos.

“Wheatland is a very good ball club and Mick Cochran has done a great job over there,” McKinney said. “They hit the crap out of the ball and it was no different tonight. We knew it was going to be tough. It was back and forth. But it’s like I told the guys, it’s one of those things that when you look up at the scoreboard and it is 18-10 and we both have 16 hits. But we’re walking guys and they kept coming up with the big hits with runners in scoring position. Their pitchers threw strikes and we didn’t get the big hits when we needed them like they were.”

Laramie led 4-3 after two innings before the Lobos scored eight big runs -- with five coming after a two-out error. Yet, the Rangers kept plugging away and trailed only by an 11-9 score after five runs in the bottom of the frame.

That, however, was as close as they would get as the Lobos never let up offensively, scoring four more times in the fourth and six runs in the fifth. Laramie had no answers.

“We scored 11 runs and that is great; but we gave up 21 runs,” McKinney said. “You can’t win a lot of ballgames like that. I kind of feel like we’re making the game hard on ourselves. The game is already hard enough, but there is so much going on that you can’t make it harder on yourself by getting picked off or making easy ground-ball errors, not taking a good route to the flyball and not hitting the cutoff. That makes the game harder on yourself. We’re not a good enough team to do that to ourselves. We need to stay strong and make the plays that we need to make and continue on. We didn’t do that tonight.”

Blake Vaughn paced the Lobos with four hits, followed by Stephen Taylor, Jon Daly and Malcom Ervin with three hits each.

Last year’s A champions, now 25-8, look to be stronger this season.

“We’re experienced and deep,” Cochran said. “We are missing two guys who are at the National FBLA today, but our team as a whole is real focused and real together. We have one goal and that is to win the State A tournament again. We had visions of maybe moving up at some point -- I’ve had this group together for three years. But they are solid and they play with a lot of confidence. I can’t say enough about the effort that they put out. We challenge ourselves with a tough schedule, playing the bigger teams week in and week out. We seem to compete, so it’s hats off to them.”

Laramie, 7-17, finished with 17 hits, led by second baseman Rylan Harding with four hits and right fielder Sean Gardea with three hits. Catcher Jon Sorenson, who had a two-run home run, led four Rangers with two hits.

Starting pitcher Jordan Rhodine was hit hard for Laramie, giving up 13 hits and 15 runs (eight earned) in 3 2/3 innings. Harding and Coley Wilson both pitched 2/3 of an inning, giving up three runs each.

Laramie will look to bounce back Friday night at 7 p.m. against the Colorado Bandits.

“It is going to be a beautiful day tomorrow and all of the teams are going to be here,” McKinney said. “It’s going to be a fun atmosphere. You just have to move on. You can’t sit here and think, ‘Gosh, what the heck happened? How can I do that?’ They beat us. We helped them, but they deserved that game.”

Dooley Oil Classic
Thursday’s Game
Wheatland 21, Laramie 11 (five innings)
Friday’s Games
9 a.m. -- Cheyenne Mountain (Colorado Springs) vs. Sand Creek (Colorado Springs)
11:30 a.m. -- Cheyenne Mountain vs. State Farm
2 p.m. -- Dothan, Ala. vs. Wheatland
4:30 p.m. -- Colorado Bandits (Denver) vs. Wheatland
7 p.m. -- Colorado Bandits vs. Laramie.
Saturday’s Games
9 a.m. -- State Farm vs. Cheyenne Post 6
11:30 a.m. -- State Farm vs. Sand Creek
2 p.m. -- Cheyenne Mountain vs. Cheyenne Post 6
4:30 p.m. -- Dothan vs. Colorado bandits
7 p.m. -- Laramie vs. Dothan

Sunday's Games

9 a.m. -- Cheyenne Post 6 vs. Sand Creek
11:30 a.m. -- Match play: Fourth-place finishers in each pool
2 p.m. -- Match play: Third-place finishers in each pool
4:30 p.m. -- Match play: Second-place finishers in each pool
7 p.m. -- Match play: First-place finishers in each pool

Rangers A holds off Rawlins

Richard Anderson photo

Laramie Rangers A manager Jeremy Francom encourages his team between innings Tuesday night against Rawlins at Cowboy Field. The Rangers won the conference game 10-8.

Laramie jumps out to big lead, hangs on

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

For the young Laramie Rangers A American Legion baseball team, every game, every inning, every pitch is a learning experience. It will likely be that way for much of this season.

The Rangers consist of mostly 15- and 16-year-olds and play a schedule against A level teams that can be 17, 18 and even 19 years old. Many of their games are basically junior varsity versus varsity.

On Tuesday against Rawlins at Cowboy Field, the youthful Rangers showed not only a range of emotion, but a hodgepodge of focus. After leading 10-1 after three innings, Laramie held on for dear life in stopping the Generals 10-8.

But hold on they did in picking up the East Conference win (3-2 in league play and 6-11 overall). Laramie was awarded a forfeit victory in the scheduled nightcap as Rawlins chose to only play one game.

“We’re looking to get better every game and improve every game,” Rangers A manager Jeremy Francom said. “With these young kids, a lot of them were just playing Babe Ruth last year. So, coming in and getting a lot of experience at the A level is definitely going to help us.”

The Laramie coaching staff spent much of the game barking a few friendly reminders with catch phrases such as “stay on your toes” repeated at will when the team was on defense.
Francom said it is not like the players don’t know to be ready; it just doesn’t hurt to remind them.

“I think a lot of times when we holler that out, they are in the game, but just hearing our voices, telling them to ‘stay in the game, think about what you are going to do every pitch,’ it keeps them on their toes and ready to make a play,” he said. “I think that the lower level, sometimes, you take some plays off. Up here at the Legion level, whether it be A, AA or Prep, you have to be ready to make a play every single time the ball is thrown. If you can stay focused for seven innings as a team by doing that, you’re going to win a lot of baseball games.”

Laramie defeated Rawlins 17-0 on Saturday in the Green River Tournament and scored seven runs in the first inning Tuesday night and three more in the third. It appeared to be too easy.

This is the time, Francom said, when their mental game needs to take over more so than their physical ability. To do that, the Laramie coach added, they have to counterpunch -- put pressure back on teams when the opponent puts pressure on them.

“Right now when we get pressure put on us, we kind of fold or let up because we’re scared to make a play or we’re scared to make things happen,” Francom said. “With experience and the more that we play, we’re going to realize how much it takes to compete and win at this level. Coach (Sean) McKinney always says that it is easy to walk on the field and lose, it’s hard to win. That’s why a lot of teams don’t do it. If we can get the mental part of the game under control as much as possible, we know the talent will come because we have it.”

Tim Carpenter, Zack Kersey and Tyler Mitchell all had two hits each for the Rangers, with Kersey and Mitchell knocking in a pair of runs each. Derek Campbell, Brody Hilgencamp, Nolan Carter and Nick Armijo all had one hit in the game.

Hilgencamp picked up the win on the mound, scattering five hits and three runs into the fifth. Josh Peterson and Barry Thomas came on in relief, with Thomas pitching well in the final two innings, giving up just one unearned run.

Laramie returns to action Thursday at Douglas for another conference twin bill. The Rangers are now in the consistent part of their schedule and Francom looks for that to translate to improved play down the stretch.

“I think this team is going to make a lot of noise by the end of July,” Francom said. “I think we’re in a good place right now as far as having everyone who was going to camp, everyone who was going on vacation, they went and now they are back. Now, we can focus on the job in hand and focus on a lot more conference wins than we got in the past.

“I think this team definitely has the talent and the ability to do it. That’s why we are getting on them about so much of the mental stuff because we know we have the talent, but now we just need to get mentally strong enough to compete and play at this level.”