Rangers bounce back at American Legion AA state tourney
Jul. 28—LARAMIE — The Laramie Rangers had mixed results during the first two days of the Wyoming American Legion Baseball State AA Tournament in Sheridan.
The Rangers and Jackson Giants went the distance, and then some, in the opening round Monday at Ernie Rotellini Field at Thorne-Rider Stadium in Sheridan. The teams battled deep into extra innings before Jackson prevailed 9-8 after 10 innings.
Laramie (35-22) then got past Rock Springs 9-3 in five innings in an elimination game on Tuesday to stay alive in the double-elimination tournament.
The Rangers faced the Sheridan Troopers in another elimination game at 1 p.m. Wednesday. The Boomerang deadline for today's special saturation edition was 10 a.m. Wednesday before the start of the game.
Jackson (30-37), which was swept by the Rangers in a doubleheader 17-5 and 16-5 last week in Laramie with both games lasting 4 1/2 innings, scored the winning run with an RBI single from Trayson Kostial. Laramie, seeded No. 3, had a last chance to tie or win in the bottom of the 10th with one out and the bases loaded before the No. 6 Giants closed out the upset.
The Rangers extended the game with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the game at 8-8.
Laramie used six pitchers in the important opening game and Jackson countered with five.
The Giants had 13 hits, including doubles by Kostial and Ayden Gralund and a home run by Lukas Gralund.
Laramie had 10 hits, with Brandon Chavez notching two doubles. He finished 3-for-6 with an RBI. Diego Medina was 2-for-5 with three RBI.
The Rangers took advantage of six No. 7 Rock Springs (6-51) errors and limited the Stallions to four singles in the five-inning contest on Tuesday.
Laramie had a 4-3 lead after the first inning and held Rock Springs scoreless the rest of the way while posting two runs in each the second and fourth innings and a run in the fifth.
Jace Moniz got the win on the mound by tossing the first 3 1/3 innings. He allowed two hits, three unearned runs with two walks and two strikeouts. Sam Hoyt pitched 2 2/3 innings of relief for two hits with one walk and two strikeouts. Ben Malone closed it out with clean inning, including a strikeout.
Tayton Moore and Garrett Dodd each had a double as the Rangers tallied 11 hits. Ben Ruckman, Chavez, Moore and Medina had two hits each and Jenkin notched three RBI.
Postseason honors
Four Rangers were selected to the All-State teams as voted on by the AA coaches at the start of the tournament.
Chavez, Ruckman and Jenkin were first team All-State. Chavez and Ruckman were unanimous selections. Chavez was selected first team in 2021 and second team in 2020 and Ruckman was second team in 2021.
Dodd, who was first team in 2021, was selected second team this season.
Player and pitcher of the year went to Colter McAnelly of the Cheyenne Sixers. Co-coach of the year were Nate Perleberg of Gillette and Ty Lain of Cheyenne.
