Rangers open districts with win over Riverton

Richard Anderson photo
Laramie shortstop Skyler Joy, 5, is mugged by teammates after an inside-the-park home run Thursday night against Riverton.

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

The Laramie Rangers AA team opened the South District Tournament with a convincing 18-8 eight-inning mercy rule win over the Riverton Raiders in American Legion baseball action Thursday night at Cowboy Field.

Laramie, 24-13, will move into the winner’s bracket and face number one seed Cheyenne Post 6 Friday night, while Riverton, 30-11, takes on Evanston.

The Rangers used a quick start, scoring three runs in the first inning, and never looked back scoring in every inning.

“They played well tonight,” Rangers AA manger Sean McKinney said. “We had runners in scoring position and we get base hits, we get doubles, we pitched it, we picked up ground balls and we played the game of baseball tonight.”

The first hit of the game was a single from Rangers right fielder Tyler Mitchell in the second inning, followed by an inside-the-park home run by shortstop Skyler Joy to increase their lead to 5-0.

Riverton would get on the board in the bottom half when left fielder Tyler Larson grounded out to first base allowing center fielder Matt Raymond to come home. Designated hitter Shawn Rivera connected on an RBI single, scoring third baseman Brady Beers to cut the lead to 5-2.

Laramie pitcher Coleton Wilson would score off a wild-pitch from Raiders pitcher Frank Asmundson for a 6-2 advantage heading into the bottom of the third inning.

The Raiders would answer Laramie’s run when Raymond got his second hit blasting an RBI triple to the left field wall that sent home shortstop Jarron Monroe to cut it back to a three run margin.

The Rangers would have a response of their own with a four run fourth inning. An errant throw to first base by Asmundson sailed right of Michael Winter, which allowed Laramie second baseman Rylan Harding to get to third base, scoring Mitchell and Joy in the process. Catcher Jon Sorenson would send Harding home with an RBI single and Wilson would come off when first baseman Jordan Rhodine hit an RBI single of his own for a big 10-3 lead.

Laramie increased its lead by two more after Sorenson's RBI double scored Joy, followed by a RBI single by Rhodine.

Riverton would stay in it when Winter smacked a two-run triple to make it a 12-5 game.

The Rangers would keep the pressure on the Raiders after Sorenson hit a two-run single, scoring Harding, and center fielder Brody Hilgenkamp, to lead 14-5 after six innings.

Laramie would tack on one more in the seventh before Riverton scored three in the bottom of the inning when Beers hit an RBI double with the bases loaded scoring all three to cut the lead to 15-8. That would be as close as the Raiders would get as the Ranger scored the next three to win the game in a 10-run mercy rule in the eighth.

A part of those last three runs was another RBI double by Sorenson, as he went 4-for-5 with three doubles, a single and five RBI.

The Rangers had 15 hits in the game with no errors, while Riverton had 10 hits with seven errors. Laramie capitalized on every one of them.

“It’s one of our tops, especially since we’re in the district tournament,” Sorenson said. “We scored more runs than any team here so far. We put up a good number of runs tonight and showed the rest of the teams here what we can do.”

McKinney said that timely hitting is what baseball is all about.

“You got to get extra touches at the plate when you have runners in scoring position," McKinney said. "They had a good mindset and their approaches at the plate today were great and I think it showed tonight.”

Wilson got the win on the mound through five innings, giving up five runs, eight hits, and six strikeouts.

Joy came in the top of the eighth inning to close it out. Joy hit pinch hitter Dallas Olson, but Olson would be tagged out at second with the next at bat, followed by a 5-4-3 double play to end the game.

The Rangers face Cheyenne Post 6, beginning at 7 p.m., in what may the their biggest challenge all season. Post 6 rolled over Evanston 16-1 on Thursday.

“Cheyenne has a great ballclub,” McKinney said. “We all know that the state tournament goes through Cheyenne and that we have to beat Cheyenne. This is the test we need to get to the state tournament and if we win this game, then we’re automatically in already. It’s a big game and it’s going to be exciting.”

“I think hitting the ball like we did and playing small ball, moving runners over, and just doing the little things right, will help us score runs on their (Cheyenne) defense,” Sorenson added.