Laramie Seeks First Conference Wins Against Gillette
For the first time this season, the Laramie Rangers play a conference doubleheader at home when they host the Gillette Roughriders at Cowboy Field.
The conference twin bill is scheduled for today at 3 p.m. You can listen to both games on KOWB (AM 1290) and the KOWB app.
Laramie (23-12, 0-4) is on a hot streak. The Rangers have won 11 of their last 13 games. That includes and 8-1 effort during last week’s action. Laramie is winless in four league games, all on the road.
What has to change? Manager Aaron Lozano says their bats have to stay hot.
“That was something we saw, especially up in Sheridan, we didn’t score a lot of runs. We didn’t score a lot of runs against Cheyenne. In fact, I think we’re sitting at having scored something like, well, less than 10 runs in four conference games and that’s not going to cut it, right? No matter who you’re playing, in four games, you’ve got to score more than 10 runs. That’s our big thing. We know the pitching and the defense is there, we’re hoping that the offense continues on, as well.”
The Rangers totaled 57 runs in 7 games at the Post 6 Firecracker Tournament in Cheyenne last weekend. They allowed only 22 runs and 11 of those were in a championship game loss, where Laramie scored only three.
Now the focus turns to big conference doubleheaders over the next three weeks to prepare for the state tournament. The Rangers have eight league games remaining on the 2020 schedule.
Lozano said these guys know, “Gillette, for example, is coming to town on Wednesday, and that they’re obviously showing themselves as one of the teams to beat in the state right now. But, our guys feel like, you know, hey, we can step on the field and compete with just about anybody now. I think that confidence is not something you can coach. It’s something the guys have to go out and earn, and they did that last weekend.”
The Roughriders come to the Gem City with a 31-9 record. These will be their first two conference games of the season.
Lozano added that they are excited to be coming off, “This juggernaut of a tournament (in Cheyenne), and we’re going to go into this doubleheader with all but one of our pitchers available. We feel pretty good about that. The way our pitchers have been throwing, and the way our defense has been playing, we feel like we’ve got a shot here to make a little bit of noise against Gillette, and hopefully, steal a couple of games.”
Laramie is 9-3 at home this season.
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