Richard Anderson photo
Laramie's Nick Armijo pitches against Green River on Saturday in the Kleppinger Klassic. Armijo came on in relief in the first inning as Laramie downed the Knights 13-5.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
Nick Armijo didn’t expect to pitch much Saturday against Green River; Brody Hilgenkamp did.
As it turned out, it worked out well for both Rangers, as the Laramie A team bounced back from a tough morning loss and 4-0 deficit to beat Green River 13-5 to close the day's Kleppinger Klassic to stop Green River 13-5.
Hilgenkamp started the game on the mound for the Rangers, but hit the first three Knights he faced to get an early hook from Laramie manager Jeremy Francom.
Armijo, who barely had pitched three innings all season, came in and although he allowed a couple of hits and Green River scored four times in the first inning, shut down the Knights the rest of the way for basically the complete-game, six-inning victory.
Laramie’s bats, anemic in the 10-1 loss to Cheyenne Post 6 Hawks in the morning, broke out and got back in the game before taking it over midway.
Laramie, now 11-19 on the season, will face the same Green River team Sunday at 12:30 p.m. for third place.
Armijo, who has spent time with both A and AA teams as a catcher this season, had expected to get a couple of innings on the mound in relief in needed. He didn’t know he would be wanted in the first inning, though.
“Actually, I had no clue,” Armijo said. “Coach asked me if my arm was good and I said, ‘yeah, I probably had 50 pitches in me if you need me to close.’ When he brought me in the first inning, I was a little surprised.”
Armijo gave up two hits in the first inning, but just one hit after that, walking five and striking out four.
Francom said they were just looking to get one or two innings out of Armijo before they could figure out what to do.
“He kind of took off and he threw very well,” Francom said. “He doesn’t throw hard, but he hits his spots and he throws a lot of strikes. The defense got behind him and made the plays.”
It appeared that Armijo was getting a little tired in the fifth with a couple of walks and a hit. But he got out he got out of the jam thanks to a strikeout, throw ‘em out double play and gave up just one run, as Laramie held on to a 6-5 lead.
“They were getting pretty rowdy over there and coach called time out and he just told me to focus in. We focused in and our team got up and that just brought me in,” Armijo said.
Hilgenkamp, meanwhile, switched positions with Armijo and played well defensively at third and later at center fielder. He also chipped in with a couple of hits and scored a couple of runs.
Not only did he struggle on the mound in that first inning, but he was picked off of second base in the bottom of the frame, costing the team a run.
Yet, there was no head hanging for Hilgenkamp.
“That’s the type of player Brody is, he’s a competitor,” Francom said. “It would have been easy for him to hang his head, but he didn’t let it get to him. He couldn’t control what happened to the first three batters, but he could control what happened after that.”
Hilgenkamp credited his teammates for keeping him up.
“That’s how I got out of the rough start and everything,” Hilgenkamp said. “Nick came in and pitched a great game. He got us out that jam. As far as getting picked off, my teammates made me stay up and I had a pretty good game after that.”
Ironically, he said he felt good warming up in the bullpen before the game.
“I was locked in, but I guess it was the release point, mechanical stuff like that,” he said.
The Laramie offense, meanwhile, came back from spotting Green River four runs with three in the bottom of the first and another in the second. The Rangers took the lead in the fourth on RBI singles by Armijo and Kevin Dooley. Laramie scored three times in the fifth on a sac fly by Barry Thomas and a two-run double by Armijo, who had four hits in the game.
A little extra batting practice got Armijo going offensively against Green River.
“Me and my dad practiced and he just showed me a different way to hit and I thought I would bring it in tonight,” Armijo said. “It seemed to work.”
Laramie put the game away with four runs in the fifth on three hits, a wild pitch and two Green River errors.
The Rangers finished with 14 hits in the game. Hilgenkamp, Lance McCartney and Tyler Mitchell all had two hits, with Thomas adding a RBI double, Dooley an RBI single and Travis Scott and Kyle Alexander both collecting singles.
“We finally responded to pressure, which was real nice,” Hilgenkamp said. “Everyone was real aggressive at the plate; pretty much everybody smoked the ball. When you score 13 runs, you can’t say too much bad about that.”
In the early game, the Rangers struggled against the Hawks with just two hits. Thomas took the loss on the mound as Cheyenne put the game away with five runs in the fifth inning.
“This morning, I don’t think we were awake enough to perform at the best of our ability and Cheyenne has been our long-time rivals,” Armijo said.
Despite the eight-run win on Saturday, the Rangers aren’t looking for a cakewalk on Sunday against the Knights.
“It’s a whole new day and we have to be ready to play,” Francom said. “They (Green River) are not going to be happy about what happened, so they will be ready to play. We have to come out with the same fire and same intensity that we had from the bottom of the first inning throughout this game and just pick up where we left off, like this game never ended.”
Cheyenne and Wheatland will play for the title at 3 p.m. The other game will pit Torrington and Rawlins at 10 a.m.
In the other games on Saturday, Cheyenne edged Torrington 8-7, Wheatland blasted Rawlins 22-4 and Green River beat Rawlins 8-0.
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