Richard Anderson photo
The Laramie Rangers A team will hope for some more celebrating at the A District tournament, which begins Thursday at Cowboy Field. The Rangers open with Douglas at 10 a.m.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
It’s tournament time for the Laramie Rangers -- East A District Tournament in Laramie; State B Tournament in Sheridan and Western Conference Tournament in Rock Springs.
The Rangers A team will host five other teams beginning Thursday, with four moving on to the state tournament next week in Cheyenne. Laramie’s Prep team will compete in the State B Tournament, while the AA squad will finally get back in action at the conference tournament.
The Laramie A team goes into the district tournament with an 11-20 overall record, including a 2-2 mark in their last outing on July 18-20 when they hosted the Kleppinger Klassic.
Winning two games at the tournament is their main goal right now, manager Jeremy Francom said.
“The goal at the beginning of the season is that you want to make it to the state tournament and you want to make some noise at the state tournament,” Francom said. “The kids are very, very excited to be playing at home again. There haven’t been a lot of home games this year, so to be able to host the district tournament at home has them very, very excited and ready to get going.”
Francom said another goal at the beginning of the season is to get better every day.
“If you can get one percent better every day, you are going to be at a good place,” he said. “I think we have been getting better. I think you saw a lot of that at the Kleppinger Klassic. I think we can rely on our teammates a lot more and we’re gaining confidence. At the end of the year, that’s what you want to be doing.”
Francom said the Rangers have improved immensely is the season opener against Wheatland.
“We were all over the place,” he said. “We were scared; it was the first time a lot of the guys played Legion baseball. Now we have 31 games under our belt of Legion experience. We’re just a lot more comfortable out there. We’re relaxed and ready to make plays when the ball comes to us and we’re more aggressive at the plate.”
No. 5 Laramie opens the tournament at 1 p.m. on Thursday against Douglas the No. 4 seed. Douglas won two of three games against the Rangers this season.
“Douglas is a good team; all they play is single A ball,” Francom said. “We have to be ready for them. They are a team that hit’s the ball everywhere. They spray the field. We need to be ready, to be on our toes, when the ball comes to us.”
Barry Thomas gets the start on the mound for the Rangers, who are looking to build some momentum early in the tournament.
“You want to come out with a win; it makes it a lot easier,” Francom said. “If you win two games, you go to state. Right now, we’re just focused on Douglas. We’re focused on inning number one and when that us over, we’ll focus on inning number two. It’s pitch by pitch, play by play. If we worry about what is happening right now, everything will take care of itself.”
Defending state champion Wheatland is the heavy favorite and received a first-round bye. The Lobos will play the winner of the Laramie/Douglas game at 7 p.m. Cheyenne got the other first-round bye and will play the Gillette/Rawlins winner at 4 p.m. Gillette and Rawlins open things up at 10 a.m.
Prep ready to go
The Laramie Prep team, which consists of 13- and 14-year-olds, has had to play against older teams for much of the season. That won’t change this weekend in the state tournament. Laramie opens against Casper Thursday at 10 a.m.
That makes the Rangers (13-17) the underdog, according to manager VerDon Hoopes.
“Some of the teams, I doubt they will know until they see us, how young we are,” Hoopes said. “I think they’ll be thinking that we’re going to be a 15 or 16-year-old team, too. But when we get there, they will find that out.
“We’re going in with the approach that, ‘hey, let’s just go out there and compete and see what we can do. We know that the odds are stacked against us. The reality of the thing is there are much mature kids and stronger.”
The Rangers Prep team actually began the season in March and played most of the first half of the season in the Fort Collins League against 14-year-olds. They ended up placing second in the season-ending tournament.
This tournament is a bit different for the youngsters emotionally as well.
“There’s not quite that feel that there was for the Fort Collins tournament, because we felt like we could win that one,” he said. “This one we are just going in with the idea to play the best that we can and see what happens.”
Hoopes, however, likes his situation against Casper in the first round. “I know their team is all 15-year-olds, so that is a little closer to us and a pretty good matchup for us,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.
Wheatland B team has a bye and will face the Casper/Laramie winner at 5 p.m. Sheridan has the other bye and takes in the Cheyenne/Jackson winner at 8 p.m. Cheyenne and Jackson play at 1 p.m.
Rangers AA finally in action
You can’t blame the Rangers for being a little rusty. The last time they played another opponent was on Jul7 17 when they swept the Green River Knights. Laramie was to have played Cheyenne Post 6 before being rained out twice and Rawlins last Sunday before the Generals cancelled.
This weekend’s conference tournament is for state seeding purposes. Laramie will face Rock Springs, Green River and Evanston in the two-day affair.
The Rangers, 21-22 on the season, haven’t faced Rock Springs and Evanston this season.
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