Richard Anderson photo
Laramie Rangers A second baseman Tyler Mitchell waits for the sign this weekend in the Kleppinger Klassic at Cowboy Field.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
Round two goes to Green River.
After the Laramie Rangers A rallied on Saturday to down the Knights in the Kleppinger Klassic, it was AA Green River’s turn to dominate, stopping the Rangers 18-7 Sunday at Cowboy Field.
Green River (3-1) finished third in the tourney, with the Rangers (2-2) in fourth place.
Sunday began much like Saturday’s game, as the Knights opened with three runs in the first inning and led 7-1 before Laramie battled back to make it a one-run game. On Saturday, Green River opened with a four-spot in the first inning in the 13-5 loss to the Rangers.
The Knights, however, never let up this time, scoring in all seven innings en route to the lop-sided win.
The Rangers (11-20) had a couple of nice pitching performances in the tournament, but everything they threw was hit by the bigger Knights on Sunday. Green River pounded out 20 hits against three Laramie pitchers.
“They are a team that if you just throw fastballs down the pipe, they are going to hit it and they are going to hit it far,” Laramie manager Jeremy Francom said. “We couldn’t spot our off-speed stuff very well today and we had to throw a lot of fastballs. It was just big hit, after big hit, after big hit. We needed a stop defensively and we couldn’t get it.”
After throwing just 44 pitches in the 10-0 win over Rawlins on Friday, Laramie starting pitcher Lance McCartney struggled on Sunday, lasting just three innings, giving up eight hits and seven runs.
The Rangers, however, battled back with five runs in the bottom of the third to cut the lead to 7-6. Barry Thomas and Zach Kersey led the way with respective two-run singles.
That was as close as the Rangers would get, as Green River responded with two runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings and five big runs in the seventh. Nolan Carter pitched three innings following McCartney and Brody Hilgenkamp pitched the seventh.
“We’re happy that we responded, but it took us too long to do it,” Francom said. “When one aspect of your game is down, you have to bring the other ones up. Today, we didn’t do that.”
Laramie finished with 11 hits in the game, but left the bases loaded twice in the first couple of innings that could have changed the complexion of the game.
Thomas led the way with two hits and three RBI, with Kersey adding two hits and two RBI. McCartney, Tyler Mitchell and Derek Campbell all had two hits each in the game, with Carter adding a double.
Despite closing the tournament with a loss, Francom said his players took some steps forward as a team.
“I think they got confidence in their teammates and they learned they can rely on their teammates to make plays,” he said. “In this game, something that we haven’t got before is someone taking charge on defense, expecting balls and making plays by communicating. That’s a positive that we can take from this.”
Laramie will now concentrate on the District Tournament July 30-Aug. 2 in Laramie.
Francom said they are going to hit it hard at practice this week.
“Practice is going to run longer, they are going to be more intense, and we’re going to put them in more game situations as we to get more mentally strong for the district tournament,” he said.
In the early fifth-place game, Torrington AA stopped Rawlins A 13-1 and Wheatland A won the tournament title with an 11-6 win over Cheyenne A.
No comments:
Post a Comment