Colts avenge loss to Foxes

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

The young Mountain Collegiate Baseball League (MCBL) season has so far been plagued by inclement weather; Monday’s game between the Laramie Colts and Fort Collins Foxes was no exception. Rain, lightning, and some hail fell onto Cowboy Field, which caused a rain delay in the middle of the fifth inning.

However, a little ray of sun shined from the baseball Gods on Cowboy Field and the game continued on, ultimately resulting in a 10-3 victory for the Colts. With the win the Colts now sit atop the MCBL standings at 3-1, while the Foxes drop to 2-3.

The Colts jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first inning and never looked back, largely in part to great hitting. Laramie compiled 14 hits on the day for eight runs batted in.

The Colts were cruising along a 7-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth with the bases loaded and two outs, when a bizarre sequence took place. With third baseman Eric Krznaric at the plate, each Laramie base runner ran half way to their next bases and were all tagged out for a triple-play to end the inning. Why did this happen? Coach Ryan Goodwin told his players to get tagged out on purpose.

“I intentionally killed our momentum,” Goodwin said. “I knew if we didn’t get through that (fourth) inning, if the rain was heavier than what actually came, then we could totally have to make that whole game up. I ran us into that triple-play; I’m not proud of what I did, but I knew for us to get that win, to assure it; I wanted to do that.”

If a game goes to a fifth inning, then the contest becomes conclusive, meaning the team who is winning at that point will win the game if the game cannot be continued. Anything less, then the game would be postponed or cancelled. Cancellation would take away any chance of a win for that game.

Pitcher Taylor Henry quickly got the Colts out of the top of the fifth with three straight outs to end the inning. The game was delayed after that.

Nearly 45 minutes later, the rain cleared up enough to play ball with the Colts up to bat. However, it was the Foxes who came out of the delay fired up. After quickly getting out of the fifth-inning, the Foxes dominated the sixth. Fort Collins scored three runs off of four hits to cut the margin to 7-3 and drew the Colts into a 6-4-3 double play in the bottom the sixth to get out of the inning unscathed.

“In a way I kind of screwed up, because I gave them a reason to come back fired up after the rain delay,” Goodwin said. “I just have to commend our guys, especially the guys that came in. I felt like we were flat once we got going again and when we brought our reserves in, they picked us right back up.”

By the seventh inning tempers started to flair between the two rivals as F0rt Collins pitcher Ryan Kruse beaned Laramie in fielder Eric Dejong. To Dejong’s dismay he threw down his helmet and started to walk toward the mound, while Kruse threw down his glove and started walking toward home plate. Both men were separated and Dejong took his base, while having a few words with Fort Collins catcher Nick Wiggins.

The eighth inning saw the Colts retake control of the game as Kruse was ejected for beaning Laramie second baseman Lucas Calderon. From there the Colts would score three runs off of three hits for three RBI against Fort Collins pitcher Bobby Kelley to take a 10-3 lead. The Foxes would get no closer.

“It was basically a complete turnaround. The score was very similar, but we were on the losing end last time,” Colts hitting coach Mike Overman said. “We came out and swung the bats good, we got really hot, but the rain delay hurt us a little bit. We had a lot of momentum heading into the rain delay.

“We attacked fastballs tonight and hit them for the most part, we didn’t miss fastballs when there was a good pitch to hit, so we did really well."

One of the better hitting performances for the Colts came from catcher Robert Greene. He was 3-for-3 on the day with a single and two doubles, one of which bounced over the center field wall for a ground-rule double, which sent a runner home.

“We’ve been coming out and hitting on our own and getting a lot of swings in,” Greene said. “We’ve been anxious to play against some real pitchers. We’re just trying to see good pitching and put the ball in play and we’re doing that pretty well.”

The Colts will be in action again Wednesday when they take on the Greeley Grays at Cowboy Field with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.