Three Teams From Laramie Win State Fast Pitch Titles

The Laramie Girls Softball program brought home three state championships from the Wyoming State Softball tournament in Rock Springs last weekend.

The 10 and under, 12 and under and 14 and under squads all won state titles for girls fast-pitch softball as part of the USA Softball B Recreation divisions.

The 12U team managed by Jason Pacheco scored 95 runs in five games, all wins, on their way to the championship.

Pacheco said it felt amazing to watch those girls.

“To get that achievement after they worked so hard. You know, most of the girls were the travel team. We started practice back in December. To watch them finally be able to pull everything together and come up with that win, it was awesome.”

Laramie opened with a 19-2 victory over the Lander Fury in their first pool play game. They blew out Adams RV from Green River 24-2 in the second pool play game. The 12U team beat the Casper Cobras 18-1 in their only game Saturday.

In Sunday’s semifinal, Laramie was pushed, but managed a 14-13 victory in nine innings over Lander. With two outs and two strikes, Kailyn Ruckman hit a ground ball to the shortstop. She threw home, but the runner beat the throw, and Laramie prevailed. Those two teams met in the championship, and it was all Laramie, 20-5, in four innings.

Pacheco said the key was how their bats came alive.

“They hit very well all tournament. We had a tough semifinal game that came down to extra innings. To watch them (deal with) adversity, they never got down in spirit. They just kept going, kept going, kept hittin’ the ball. They made a bunch of errors in that game, but like I said, they never gave up.”

While the 12’s were test once, the 14’s were involved in a few tight battles, but they also went undefeated last weekend.

14U manager Marce Vasquez said it was an extremely exciting weekend.

“We had three really, really close games, just nail-bitters the whole way. The team pulled together though. A couple of adverse moments in a couple of games, just pulled through, played really strong and super proud of these girls. They played stellar.”

Laramie opened with a hard-fought 5-4 win over The Steel Workers from Green River. Laramie had a 5-2 lead, but the team from Green River rallied with two runs in the seventh before they held on. In their second pool play game Kayla Vasquez tossed a three-hit shutout, as Laramie won 16-0 over the Evanston Bandits. Vasquez also hit a home run in that game.

Saturday in bracket play, the 14’s beat The Steel Workers 20-6 and advanced to the semifinals.

Sunday, Laramie faced the Worland Wildfires twice. Behind the pitching of Janey Adair, according to Coach Vasquez, Laramie won 6-2 to get to the title game, and then prevailed in the rematch, 8-3.

Vasquez also said, “Pitching was top notch, and all our girls in batting, batted the best they’ve done all season. (I) was very, very with the way they played in the field and at-bat. They did super.”

KOWB has only game results from the 10U state champions. They won their first pool play game last Friday, 13-5, over the Wheatland Lobos. In pool play game number two, Laramie defeated the Cheyenne Extreme 20-2. The 10’s beat Rock Springs in their first bracket play action Saturday, 20-8.

From last Sunday’s play, Laramie won its semifinal against the Extreme 15-2. That was followed by a dominating 13-1 win over Wheatland in the championship.

We’ve reached out to visit with their head coach. We will update this story when that information becomes available.