Laramie Rangers Make Home Debut June 1st

The American Legion baseball season is off to a good start for the hometown Laramie Rangers. They are 2-0 in this new season. After an upcoming Memorial Day weekend tournament in Cheyenne, the Laramie Rangers will have their home opener at Cowboy Field June 1 against North Platte, Nebraska. It’s a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 5 pm.

For their two wins so far this season, the Rangers have defeated the Cheyenne Hawks, 12-9, and the Casper Oilers, 15-4 (7 innings). The win over Cheyenne also qualifies as a conference victory.

Laramie’s home slate in 2012 features 15 home dates, including two tournaments, over the next couple of months at Cowboy Field. It’s really jam-packed for a five-week stretch from mid-June through mid-July, when the Rangers play 23 games. Among those games are several doubleheaders, and the home tournaments, the Dooley Oil Classic (June 22-24) and the Firecracker Invitational presented by Laramie G.M. Auto Center (July 6-8).

It all leads up to the post-season which starts July 25. The South District American Legion baseball tournament is in Jackson this year and runs July 25-July 28, 2012. The AA/A American Legion State Baseball tournament will be held at Mike Lansing Field in Casper, August 1-August 5, 2012.

Laramie is looking forward to bigger and better results this season. It’s a squad that features plenty of experience, as 9 players return that either started or were regular contributors to last year’s varsity team that went 31-27.

Even with that, the off-season brought about another change atop the program. The Rangers have their fifth different head coach in the last eight seasons. Rich Wilson, a former University of Wyoming Cowboys pitching coach, was hired last fall to take over the program. He has also coached at other levels of youth baseball in the community, and even had two sons play for the Rangers.

Wilson’s been very pleased with the 2-0 start saying, “Nothing’s happened so far that you don’t expect in the first ten games. What’s going on right now is typical, and I think we’re just really where we want to be.”

Many of the Laramie Rangers home games will be on the radio, as KOWB (AM 1290) will broadcast action on all 15 home dates. David Settle, voice of the Laramie Rangers, will provide the description from Cowboy Field, and then follow the team in the post-season, as well. Fans can also listen live online and on their mobile device with the radioPup application.