Rangers Fight, But Fall Short To Cheyenne in Home Debut

A seven-run fifth inning propelled Cheyenne Post 6 past the Laramie Rangers at Cowboy Field Tuesday night. The final score was 9-6.

This was Laramie’s home opener for the 2019 season. The Rangers remain winless at 0-8.

Manager Aaron Lozano was very pleased with his team’s competitiveness despite the loss.

“I think it’s a completely different ball club than we saw in Casper a couple of weekends ago. We had better attitudes. The guys were picking each other up. (There were) a lot of positive attitudes, none of the blame game, none of the finger pointing, which happens sometimes when you’re losing a lot, and you’re getting your butts kicked. It’s easy to get into that mode. These guys decided they’re not going to do that anymore. I think that showed in the way they acted and presented themselves tonight.”

Laramie took a 2-0 lead on a bases-loaded RBI-single by Caleb Eaton in the second inning. That plated Janson Adair and Baden Jordan. Cheyenne cut the lead to 2-1 with a run in the third.

Post 6 sent 11 batters to the plate in the fifth and chase Rangers starting pitcher Tyler Oppie. Cheyenne scored seven runs on six hits with one Laramie error. RJ Prince had a key two-run double.

The Rangers responded with four runs in the sixth and pulled within 8-6. Eaton had an RBI-infield single, which was followed by a key Aidan Morris two-run double just inside third base and down the leftfield line. Ramon Gomez followed with an RBI-groundout.

Cheyenne added an insurance run in the ninth.

Oppie took the loss on the mound. He went 4.2 innings and allowed eight runs on nine hits. Oppie walked two and struck out five. Gomez threw the final 4.1 innings and gave up one run on two hits. He walked two and had three strikeouts.

Offensively, the six runs came on 10 hits. Eaton, Morris, Alex Flores, and Jordan had two hits apiece.

Cheyenne had 11 hits in the game. They were led by Tyson Bradley with three hits and two RBI’s. Alec Clark got the win in relief, while Dawson Macleary had the save. Macleary retired the final 11 hitters he faced.

Despite the loss, Lozano said, “That’s the first time this season we’ve had smiles in the team meeting down the right field line. Just focusing on the fact that our pitching staff limited walks, a couple of errors, but overall the cleanest game we’ve played. The bats are starting to come alive. We started to string together some hits.”

Lozano said in Casper (April 27-28) when they played four games, they left the bases loaded six times.

“We still left a few guys on tonight, but I think we did a better job of timely hitting.”

The Rangers were scheduled to play a game at the Casper Oilers Thursday, but that's been canceled because of the weather. Laramie returns to action at home Saturday for a doubleheader at noon versus Douglas.