Campbell County pulls away from Laramie in late innings
May 6—LARAMIE — After a back-and-forth battle early on, Campbell County showed why it is ranked No. 1 in the state down the stretch Thursday afternoon in a 10-3 win over Laramie High.
The Lady Plainsmen, ranked fourth in this week's WyoPreps.com Coaches and Media softball poll, only trailed 3-2 after four innings, but a series of miscues led to them being outscored 7-1 the rest of the way. Laramie committed three errors for the game, all of which occurred in the final three innings, while stranding nine runners on base.
Despite these struggles, the Lady Plainsmen entered the final inning trailing by only two. However, the Lady Camels plated four runs before the first out of the top of the seventh, and added another on a wild pitch before the end of the frame.
Campbell County improved to 17-6 overall and 9-1 in East Conference play with the win, while LHS fell to 12-8 with a 6-4 mark against conference competition. The first game of the doubleheader counted as a league contest. The second nonconference game was not completed before press time for the Boomerang.
"A few mistakes compounded and snowballed," Laramie coach Luke Andrews said. "We had a couple things in the field and left a few runners on base. Unfortunately, we've been doing too much of that this year. It was a 5-3 ball game, and things snowballed a little bit."
Senior starting pitcher Janey Adair, who went the distance with 10 strikeouts, six earned runs and 11 hits allowed in seven innings, gave the Lady Plainsmen an early advantage by knocking an opposite-field leadoff home run in the bottom of the first. That would be their only lead of the game, though, as Campbell County sophomore Natalie Clonch evened the score at 1-1 on a solo shot to lead off the top of the second.
Both teams went scoreless in the third, before the Lady Camels' bats started to come alive in the fourth. Freshman Lanae Kimbley opened the inning with an infield single, followed by a line-drive double down the left field line from sophomore Avery Gray. Clonch, who went 2-for-2 with three RBIs, two runs scored and two intentional walks, proceeded to bring both runners home with a double to the left field gap.
"Janey is a really good pitcher, so I just tried to attack any pitch that was near me," Clonch said. "I had to get my hands to the ball fast, because she's a fast pitcher. It was just an on-day."
Outside of Adair, who had two singles and a stolen base to go along with her solo shot in the first inning, sophomore Marisol Gomez was the only other LHS player to record a multi-hit day. She also had a team-high two RBIs.
Her first hit of the game came in the bottom of the fourth, as she dropped a two-out single just past the second baseman to score junior Kailyn Ruckman and cut the deficit to one run. The other occurred in the bottom of the sixth, as she brought junior Paysen Witte around to score on a stand-up triple to the centerfield fence.
"I had been struggling before, so I just tried to adjust what I was struggling with and sit back and drive the ball," Gomez said. "Especially on that change-up, I really worked on sitting back and focusing on hitting the ball."
Unfortunately for the Lady Plainsmen, they weren't able to produce any runs elsewhere, while Campbell County began to find a groove at the plate in the middle and late innings.
Gray, Clonch and Kimbley each scored two runs and provided at least two hits for the Lady Camels, with Gray — who struck out 15 batters with three runs and eight hits allowed in seven innings — connecting on a team-high three hits. Sophomore Adelaide Rambo added two hits, two RBIs and one run scored for Campbell County.
"It was very tight," Campbell County coach Haley Gray said. "We know she is an amazing pitcher and it's a really good team, so we struggled the first two innings trying to hit the ball. Once they got on it, I was proud of them for making that adjustment."
With the Lady Plainsmen averaging just over two strikeouts per inning at the plate in the loss, Andrews pointed to the obvious when it comes to areas of improvement for his team. They'll return to action today at 3 p.m. with a home doubleheader against third-ranked Thunder Basin.
"We have to avoid strikeouts," Andrews said. "That's something we've been harping on this year, but we have plenty of time left. Now, we're just trying to focus on coming out and playing two games, and putting tough losses behind us."
Josh Criswell covers the University of Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached at jcriswell@wyosports.net or 307-755-3325. Follow him on Twitter at @criswell_sports.
