Rangers Swept at Home by Spearfish

The eight game winning streak came to a half Wednesday night at Cowboy Field, as the Laramie Rangers were swept in a doubleheader by the Spearfish (SD) Spartans. Laramie lost game one, 9-0, and game two, 7-3.

Rangers manager Rich Wilson said, "I guess that happens, but I can't make any excuses. We had some opportunities to do some things and didn't capitalize on it. Hopefully we learn from that and move forward."

After they scored 34 runs and pounded out 37 hits in a doubleheader sweep of Rawlins on Tuesday, the Rangers were shut down by Spearfish pitching. Laramie managed only 11 hits in the two games.

Spearfish right-hander Ryan Hamilton was dominant. He threw a complete game shutout and held the Rangers to five hits, with no walks and 10 strike-outs in a 9-0 victory.

Wilson said, "I hand it to him. He pitched a great game. We haven't seen a pitcher like that, but that's good. I think we will see another one down the road. Hopefully we don't have the same results, but we'll know we have to step in, dig in, a little deeper and get the job done."

Laramie got a single in the second, two in the fifth and two in the sixth. Meanwhile, the Spartans scored two runs in the first, third, fourth, and sixth innings, while they also got one in the second. Spearfish also took advantage of five Rangers errors in the game one win. Alex Jordan started and suffered the loss on the mound for Laramie.

In game two, the Spartans jumped out to a 5-1 lead after four innings of action and held on for the 7-3 victory. The Rangers pulled within 6-3 in the fifth, thanks to an RBI sacrifice fly by Tyler Loose and an RBI single by Drew Burman. He had two of Laramie's six hits in the game and reached base a third time on an error. Chance Jones started at pitcher and took the loss.

Laramie (22-9) returns to the diamond on Friday with a road doubleheader at Sidney, Nebraska. The first game is scheduled for 3 p.m. The Rangers will return home on Monday against the Westco Zephyrs from Scottsbluff, Neb. KOWB will carry both games of that doubleheader starting at 2:45 p.m. on July 1. David Settle will call all the action from Cowboy Field.