The post-season has arrived for American Legion baseball in Wyoming. The Laramie Rangers are at the “AA” state tournament in Jackson starting Tuesday.

Rangers’ manager Brandon Ruckman says he feels good about the team going in.

“I feel the kids are ready to go. We didn’t quite have the outcome in conference that we’d hoped for, but we kind of ended strong with that game against Gillette. I feel like they gained some confidence going into this.”

Laramie (20-27) is the fourth seed from the east and will play the host, Jackson Giants, the top seed from the west on day one at 7:30 p.m.

Ruckman said drawing the Giants is tough.

“Jackson just came off a big win against us. They no-hit us. That, and they’re the home team… it’s going to be tough, but we do have a good pitcher going.”

Ruckman will give the ball to Harrison Yates, who is 3-5 with a 5.92 earned run average. He’s thrown 49.2 innings with 62 strikeouts. It will be Yates’ 12th start of the season. Those last three marks lead the team this season.

“I feel like he’ll give us the best chance to give us that first win to get us going.”

The Rangers enters the state tournament on a seven-game skid. One of those losses was to Jackson (29-26) in Casper on July 14. The final score was 9-0 in five innings.

Thinking back to the loss, Ruckman said they hit the ball, but it was right at their fielder’s.

“A lot of fly balls, so we need to get the ball on the ground and hit those gaps. If we need to small-ball ‘em, we can do that, but we’ve got to get something going, and get it going early with a good pitcher like that.”

Brian Feuz was the Jackson hurler who shut down the Rangers. Laramie expects to see him Tuesday night.

The Rangers-Giants game is the final of four games on day one of the Wyoming ‘AA’ American Legion state baseball tournament. The earlier match-ups include, Sheridan against Casper at 10 a.m. That is followed by Cheyenne versus Evanston at 1 p.m. The 4 p.m. game has Gillette taking on Rock Springs.

KOWB will broadcast all the Laramie Rangers games from the state tournament in Jackson. David Settle will provide the play-by-play. Tuesday’s broadcast of the opener will start at 7:15 p.m.

More From KOWB 1290