Rangers A rally past Lovell

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

Saturday proved to be twice as nice for the Laramie Rangers A squad at Cowboy Field, as they defeated the Lovell Mustangs in a thrilling come-from-behind 9-8 victory just three-and-a-half hours after they beat the Rawlins Generals 5-1.

Laramie, 12-18, moves to 2-1 in the annual wood-bat Kleppinger Klassic tournament and can play for third place on Sunday.

“They just have what it takes to push the entire game and battle back and that tells me a lot,” Rangers A manager Brandon Ruckman said. “Hopefully, they’ll take this into state. Usually we have one bad inning and usually we fold and today we battled back and put it to them (Lovell) and it was great to see them do that.”

“We never die, you know,” Laramie catcher Kevin Dooley said. “That will help us a lot at the state tournament. If we come out slow, then we just need to come back and never give up, and I think that shows a lot of character about our team.”

The Rangers struck first in this one when Lovell shortstop Eric Brimhall let a grounder from Laramie left fielder Travis Scott get under his legs, and designated hitter Taylor Boggess scored for a 1-0 lead after the first inning.

However, the Mustangs used a big third inning to seemingly take control of the game.

Lovell would send 11 batters to the plate in the top of the third, getting the best of Rangers starting pitcher Lance McCartney, and three Laramie errors added more fuel to the fire, as the Mustangs would score six runs off of just three hits for the lead.

Mustangs pitcher Shane Dickerson, second baseman Bryce Dickerson and third baseman David Rohrer all hit RBI singles, while errors by Rangers first baseman Abel Casas and third baseman Dylan Watson, along with McCartney hitting Lovell batters Cody Pickett and Steven Durtsche, resulting in all six runs.

The Rangers would hang in there when right fielder Kyle Alexander hit an RBI single sending Boggess home, and then Alexander would score off a passed ball from Lovell catcher Pickett to cut the score to 6-3 going into the fourth inning.

Each team would go scoreless in the fourth, but both would come back strong in the fifth inning.

Durtsche got things started for Lovell, as he blasted an RBI triple to left center field that scored Pickett. Durtsche would then come home off another costly error by Watson when his throw to first base went wide left of Casas, allowing Mustangs pinch hitter Jordan Mickelson to get to first safely. Lovell led 8-4 heading into the bottom of the fifth.

Now it was Laramie’s turn. Dooley led off with a single only to come home two batters later, as Alexander hit his second RBI single of the game. Another two batters later, Boggess would come home courtesy of an RBI single by center fielder Josh Peterson. It was time for Alexander and Peterson to come home, and that they did when a wild pitch got by Pickett, which allowed Alexander to come in. Two pitches later, pinch hitter Tyler Mitchell hit an RBI single bringing in Peterson to cut the lead to one.

Both teams would hold serve in the sixth inning and the Rangers kept the Mustangs at bay in the top of the seventh inning.

The game was now Laramie’s to win. Mitchell got his second single and pinch hitter Alex Jordan walked to set up shortstop Tyler Loose’s RBI single sending Mitchell home to tie the game. With Jordan and Loose on base, Dickerson would unintentionally walk Casas to load the bases with two outs. Dooley drew an RBI walk to win the game in the bottom of the seventh.

“I was just thinking if he (Dickerson) gives me a pitch, then I’m going to take it and hit a sacrifice fly,” Dooley said. “Nothing special, no line drives or anything, as long as I got a sac-fly it would be good.”

“Oh man, so much was going through my mind, I was nervous,” Ruckman added. “I was hoping he could put it in the outfield and get a sac-fly. Their (Lovell) infield was playing in, so I really couldn’t squeeze them, a lot was going through my mind. I was just trying to figure out how we could get a run across one way or another and we did it.”

The Rangers A team will be in action again Sunday at Cowboy Field in the third-fourth place game against either Cheyenne or Cheyenne Mountain, Colo., beginning at 4:30 p.m.