Rangers Win Big Twice, Advance At State Tournament

A doubleheader Saturday turned out to be no problem for the Laramie Rangers, as they blew out Douglas and Rock Springs to advance at the State Tournament.

In their first game, Laramie exploded for nine runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat the Douglas Cats. The final score was 11-1.

After a short break, the Rangers rolled past Rock Springs Archie Hay Post 24 in their second straight game with a 15-3 victory.

Both games were stopped early due to the ten-run mercy rule.

Laramie manager Rich Wilson said,

"It is exciting to really have come this far and do what we've done after where we were at the beginning of this tournament; with a little bit of worry that we'd even be here. Told the boys to give themselves a hand, and be ready to come back and do the same thing again tomorrow."

Against Douglas, Laramie held on to a 2-1 lead for six innings. Then, RBI doubles by Noah Hammontree and Drew Burman opened the flood gates. Joe Legerski followed with an RBI triple, while Nate Burman added an RBI single. The game ended on Hammontree's second double of the inning that brought in the final two runs.

Wilson said of the big seventh inning, "That's just the way you want to do it. You come loaded for bear; it might take a while to get after it, but finally when we did, everyone just followed. It didn't make any difference who was coming up; they were ready to hit the cover off the ball."

Hammontree led a 15-hit attack with three hits. That included a pair of doubles and three RBI. Taylor Dodd had three hits, as well.

Harrison Yates threw all seven innings for the victory on the mound. He tossed 117 pitches. Yates allowed one unearned run on five hits. He struck out nine and walked only two.

In the game versus Rock Springs, Laramie jumped out with four runs in the second inning. In fact, the Rangers scored in five of the seven frames. They added seven more runs in the third and fourth. It was 12-0 before Rock Springs scored. Three more runs came across in the seventh for Laramie.

Marshall Stuart smacked four doubles and drove in five runs in the victory. Five other Rangers batters added two hits apiece. They finished with 18 hits as a squad.

Laramie used three pitchers to slow down Rock Springs. Nate Hill got the win.

Wilson mentioned of Hammontree and Stuart, "They've just come alive, and it's absolutely a good thing. I love to see that."

The Rangers have survived three loser out games in a row and have won all three by ten or more runs.

Next up is a rematch against the Powell Pioneers. They beat Laramie in their first state tournament game 8-5 on Thursday. This game is for a spot in the championship.

There has been a time change, as Laramie versus Powell is now at 11 a.m. Sunday. Join David Settle for the call of the action from Cowboy Field at 10:45 a.m. on KOWB (AM 1290) and online by clicking here.