Rangers sweep Scottsbluff

Richard Anderson photos
Laramie Rangers AA manager Sean McKinney (1) and coach Kyle Deck (21) talk to the team after its sweep of the WESTCO Zephyrs, 11-1 and 13-3 Friday night at Cowboy Field. At bottom, the Rangers wait for first baseman Mike Garner to cross home plate after Garner hit the third of his three home runs in the nightcap. At left, Laramie pitchers Coleton Wilson, left, and Sri Sritharan combined to give up just four runs on eight hits in the two games.

Laramie rolls in home opener

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Mike Garner had a doubleheader players can only dream about; Coleton Wilson is beginning to look like the staff pitching ace the Laramie Rangers believe he can be and Sri Sritharan stopped using his head and relied on his arm.

It was that type of night for the Laramie Rangers in the sweep of the WESTCO Zephyrs Friday night at Cowboy Field.

Laramie rode the two-hit pitching of Wilson in the first game, an 11-1 win, while Garner blasted three home runs and knocked in nine RBI to give Sritharan his first win on the mound for the Rangers AA team in a 13-3 romp in the nightcap. Both games lasted just five innings due to the mercy rule.

The sweep moved the Rangers to 4-8 on the season. Granted, all four wins this season are against the Scottsbluff, Neb., team. Laramie manager Sean McKinney, however, said his team is just playing well in general.

“It doesn’t matter who we play,” McKinney said. “I think what matters the most and what we try to teach is that we try to play against the ball. It doesn’t matter who we are playing. The kids are working very hard in practice, the pitchers are throwing strikes for us and with runners in scoring position, and we’re coming up with big hits.”

Garner had one of the best days in Laramie Rangers history, with three hits and four RBI in the opener and three home runs and nine RBI in the second game. One of his blasts was a grand slam in the second inning. He ended the game with a two run shot in the bottom of the fifth and began the contest with a three-run home run in the first inning.

“Thirteen RBI in two games? That has to be a Rangers’ record,” McKinney said. “But that is what he can do when he stays within himself and does some of the things we work on in practice.”

Yet, Garner was eating humble pie after the game.

“It was Ok, I could have done better,” Garner said with an oh-shucks grin. “I had that strikeout; that killed me.”

Garner added that he is doing what his coaches are telling him, just “putting the bat on the ball and things like that.

“I’m just trying to give my team the best chance to win,” he said. “The wind helped a lot. I don’t know if the first one would have gone over without it. Or maybe the second.”

In was a big day offensively for the Rangers in this wind-aided twilight, as Laramie finished with 23 hits, including 11 for extra bases. Catcher/third baseman Jon Sorenson also had a two-run home run in the second game and Wilson added a pair of triples in the opener to help his cause.

“We want guys to hit doubles off of the wall,“ McKinney said. “We try to play wall hockey a lot. It helps when the wind is blowing out, some of those wall hockey ones go over. That was the case today. If not, we’re hitting doubles and triples off the wall.”

Wilson, meanwhile, had another strong outing, stopping the Zephyrs on two hits. A little over a week ago he had a one-hitter going into the final inning against the Greeley GoJos before coming up short in the end.

“That’s his second great outing in a row, and what he is going to do is he is going to keep building from that,” McKinney said. “We always talk about it being a marathon, it’s not a sprint. Every start we work on getting a little better.”

Wilson said he did a lot of off-season work and it is starting to pay off.

“I started throwing a slider and it is working pretty well,” Wilson said. “If you can just kind of keep guys off balance -- like throw a fastball and slow them down with a slider -- it seems to work.”

The Rangers also played solid defense behind Wilson and Sritharan and that made a difference on Friday night.

“When a ground ball is hit and they field it and throw the guy out, you have confidence to go on the mound to throw strokes and let them hit the ball, knowing they’ll get the out,” Wilson said.

Sritharan, who has bounced between the AA and A teams the past two seasons, had is best outing with the Rangers varsity, scattering six hits. He gave up two runs in the first and settled down in the final four innings.

“It’s a nice confidence booster and I feel like I can go ahead and get another win in the following week,” Sritharan.

A little encouragement from his teammates gave Sritharan a lift on Friday.

“We’d meet behind the pitcher’s mound before each inning and Rylan (Harding) and Skyler (Joy) would come out and tell me to turn off my brain,” Sritharan said. “I think too much and I get too nervous. I just need to get up there and throw.”

Laramie looks to feed off of this momentum today when it travels to Longmont, Colo., to face Mountain View, coached by former Cowboy great and Major Leaguer Greg Brock.

“It’s great to get two wins like this heading into Mountain View,” McKinney said. “Coach Brock will have a great squad, like he did last year. We had a great game against them last year, we beat them 4-3 in the Firecracker. We want to go down there and give everything we have and see if we can come away with two victories.”

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RANGERS 11, ZEPHYRS 1 (5)
WESTCO 000 10 -- 1 2 1
Laramie 025 4x -- 11 10 2
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RANGERS 13, ZEPHYRS 3 (5)
WESTCO 201 00 -- 3 6 2
Laramie 452 02 -- 13 13 0