Rangers Fall At CABA World Series To Oysters, 14-7
For a third straight game, the Laramie Rangers fell behind early and lost to the Rocky Mountain Oysters from Arizona, 14-7, at the CABA World Series in Cheyenne Wednesday.
The Rangers trailed 2-0 but battled back for their first lead in the tournament with a 3-run first inning. The Oysters answered with five straight runs and never relinquished the lead at Powers Field.
Laramie (13-27) dropped its fifth straight game overall and fell to 0-3 in the CABA World Series tournament.
Rangers’ manager Aaron Lozano I felt like it still wasn’t the cleanest game we’ve played.
“There were a couple of mental errors or plays that we could’ve made that we didn’t make. That’s what’s going to happen, is a result like this. Not the result we wanted, but it was encouraging to see the bats going a little bit.”
It was 2-0 Oysters when Laramie responded. Tyler Oppie’s RBI-single plated Caleb Eaton. An RBI-double from Calvin Webb tied it. A balk committed by the Oysters’ pitcher gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead. The Arizona squad came right back with four runs in the second and took a 6-3 lead. The Oysters added to it with a run in the third and five in the fourth inning.
Eaton, Oppie, and Webb led an eight-hit attack with two hits apiece.
Lozano said, “Something that we’ve actually been pretty good at this year is being able to put together a big inning or keep the pressure on a pitcher. Seven runs is a good amount of runs in any game, but just some things that need tightening up, and hopefully we can use the rest of this tournament to tighten those things up.”
Reston Morehouse started on the mound, but lasted just 3.1 innings and took the loss. He allowed 11 runs, seven earned, on 11 hits.
The Oysters finished with 15 hits, four of the extra-base hits, and took advantage of eight walks and five stolen bases.
Lozano added, “When you play teams like this, in tournaments like this, they’re going to point out your flaws that you’re maybe not seeing against lesser competition. Not in any way trying to insult other teams that we’ve played, but when we play a Torrington, we maybe get away with a few things that we’re not going to get away with here. We’re not going to get away with them when we play Gillette or Cheyenne or Sheridan in our conference games or at our state tournament. Tournaments like this are good for pointing those flaws out, and hopefully, we can tighten those up throughout the rest of this tournament and maybe have a light practice Sunday to tighten those up, too.”
Laramie plays its fourth pool play game Thursday at noon versus the Gillette Roughriders. They will play Cheyenne Post Six at 7:30 p.m. Friday, and close out the CABA World Series against Pueblo, CO Azteca Saturday at 5 p.m. All three of those games are at Powers Field in Cheyenne.
Next Monday and Tuesday, the Rangers will host the Sheridan Troopers and Cheyenne Post Six in conference doubleheaders at Cowboy Field.