The Laramie Junior Little League All-Stars will try to earn a trip to the regional tournament in Bend, OR at home this week.

Laramie is hosting the 2022 Senior-Junior Little League State Tournament at Gold Field and Cowboy Field, Monday through Thursday. It’s a four-team, double-elimination bracket.

The difference is Laramie could have had the Junior Little League bid automatically, but instead, the team opted to try and earn it by winning games against Senior Little League (13-15-years-old) teams from Casper, Pinedale, and Rock Springs.

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Manager Matt Lehning believes his squad is excited about it.

“It’s a great opportunity. These kids get to come in and play more baseball, that maybe, a lot of them weren’t going to get that chance.”

Laramie Youth Baseball created its first Junior LL division for 13 and 14-year-olds and had four teams in the local league. After the season was finished, they created an all-star team, much like you see with the Majors and Minors at the 11-12 and 9-10-year-old Little League levels.

Lehning says the Junior LL is run very similar to what we’re used to having here with Little League.

“The bigger ballpark makes a huge difference. I mean, making the jump from Majors (11-12) on up here, playing on the bigger base paths, all of that stuff, it’s a big jump for a lot of these kids.”

The Laramie Junior LL All-Stars are represented by Jackson Bailey, Jaymes Bailey, Maddox Dorrell, Jaxon Gosar, Cayden Hardesty, Will Harris, Brock Lehning, Jax McClain, Braydin Mohr, Dax Parvin, Reese Osborne, Noah Reese, and Griffin Stender.

Lehning is being assisted by Josh Dorrell and Dave Hardesty.

Laramie’s got 12 players that are 13-years-old, and one that is 14 years of age, Harris.

Lehning says the good news is we’ve played a lot of baseball.

“This team is young, and I don’t know what to expect. I’ve kind of went into all of my (previous all-star coaching experiences) tournaments, Majors and Minors, knowing the expectations. I don’t even know what to expect. I think how all the rules play out, we’ll just try to put the best nine players out on the field and see what happens.”

Lehning knows playing teams from the Senior LL division with older kids will be a factor. He added that it doesn’t mean we can’t compete, it just might change some strategy.

He also said the team is looking forward to playing in Laramie and getting some local fans behind the team.

Laramie will play at 7 p.m. versus Casper at Gold Field. That game follows the opening ceremonies at 6 p.m.

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