Cheyenne Post 6 took full advantage of a short-handed Laramie Rangers squad in a 22-0 victory at Cowboy Field Thursday night.

Post 6 (48-14, 2-0) broke the game wide open with 14 runs in the fourth inning. It was stopped after the fifth due to a 20-run mercy rule.

Rangers’ manager Brandon Ruckman described it as a tough one to deal with.

“I’m hoping we can get that one out of our system and then come back against a Sheridan team; so we’ll see.”

Cheyenne led 8-0 after two innings and then exploded. In that fourth, they sent 20 batters to the plate, collected eight hits and took advantage of three Laramie errors.

Overall In the game, Rangers’ pitchers issued 14 free passes to Post 6 hitters. Laramie walked eight batters and hit six others.

Brock Anderson went four innings for the win on the mound. He didn’t give up a hit and only allowed five baserunners.

Laramie (20-23, 0-2) managed only two hits offensively. Wes Yerty and Will Yates had singles in the fifth inning. Harrison Yates was the losing pitcher. He lasted only 3-and two-thirds innings.

The Rangers were without veterans Joseph Legerski, Marshall Stuart and Henry Yates. According to Ruckman, Yates has left the team.

Ruckman said he’s pretty frustrated with player absences.

“These kids knew when the conference games were, and they decided to just take off in the middle of a conference game week… they kind of gave up on the team… I don’t know; I’m pretty frustrated as a coach. They’ve had that schedule for three months now.”

Laramie concludes their regular season by hosting the Sheridan Troopers tonight at Cowboy Field. The conference game starts at 6 p.m. The winner will be the third seed from the East Conference. The loser gets the fourth seed and will face Casper in the first round at the state tournament next Tuesday in Sheridan.

Ruckman added, “This is an important one because if we beat them (Sheridan), we get the three seed. It gives us a lot better advantage coming into state.”

KOWB (AM 1290) will have coverage of tonight’s game at 5:45 p.m. David Settle will call the action from Cowboy Field.

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