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.”