Colts rally for third straight win

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

After a sluggish start, one big inning enabled the Laramie Colts to come back and beat the first-place Cheyenne Grizzlies 11-9 in Mountain Collegiate Baseball League action Tuesday at Cowboy.

With the win Laramie, 19-17, has now won three straight and moved into a virtual second-place tie with the Greeley Grays, sitting just one-half of a game back of Cheyenne, 17-14, for first place.

“Offensively, we’re putting together very efficient performances right now,” Colts manager Ryan Goodwin said. “We always seem to have two or three big innings a game, and I think that’s been our key right now. We’re pitching it just enough and playing just enough defense, but we can still get better in those two areas.”

The Grizzlies jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after scoring two runs in the first and second innings, as Colts starting pitcher Andrew Scheid got off to a rough start, walking four and giving up one hit, before he was relieved by Kyle Roliard with two outs remaining in the top of the first.

Cheyenne center fielder Bret Fanning would score off a wild pitch from Roliard and designated hitter Sam Radbil would hit an RBI single that sent second baseman Kaleb Brawner home for the four-run advantage.

However, the Colts would respond in the bottom of the second inning with eight runs. Third baseman Erik DeJong would get things started leading off with a single, as part of a five-hit inning. Laramie sluggers Casey Martin, Lee Orr, Jonathon Olla and Keith Towne would all hit RBI singles off of Grizzlies pitcher Bryce Reid to take an 8-4 lead into the third inning.

Grizzlies first baseman Michael Surina would scamper home off of another wild pitch thrown by Roliard to cut the lead to three in the third inning.

Each team would stay level for the next four innings, with tough defense behind their respective pitchers.

Marco Mejia would step to the mound for the Colts in the eighth inning, but would give up two runs when Brawner hit an RBI double that was misjudged by Olla in left field to score Grizzlies catcher Joe Spring. Brawner would later score as the Colts' lead was cut to one run.

The Colts would answer the Grizzlies run in the bottom of the eighth and load the bases with one out. DeJong's sacrifice fly scored Tyler Kipke, followed by a two-run by Martin for an 11-7 cushion.

Tyler Park had three strikeouts in the ninth inning, but a costly throwing error by Eric Cain allowed two Grizzlies to score to close the cap, but Park got out of the jam for the save.

“It felt good, but it would have felt better if I didn’t walk two,” Park said. “I made a couple of wrong pitches, but other than that it was all right.”

Roliard got the win for the Colts, giving up three runs on eight hits in six innings.

“(Kyle) Roliard came out and he did really good,” Park said. “He came in and shut them (Cheyenne) down. We came out and had a big (second) inning and that helped Roliard out a lot.”

With the shortened regular season, the Colts now only have a few more games until the playoffs.

“All the cards are starting to fall in our direction,” Park said. “It looks like we’re going to do really good, so it’s going to turn around right here.”

The regular season was originally scheduled for 48 games, but then the MCBL voted to reduce it to 42 due to all of the weather cancellations.

Goodwin said that may not be the case now.

“It’s not going to be a straight 42 (games), everyone is going to try and play what they can,” Goodwin added. “Right now, I believe we’ll get at least 45 if not 46 in. The more we keep winning, the better it’s going to be for us.”

Laramie will go for four in a row overall and three straight against the Greeley Grays here Thursday at Cowboy Field, beginning at 6:35 p.m.

These two teams met Monday in Greeley, Colo., with the Colts coming out on top 11-8, but not without some controversy.

Grays players Nick Huckaby and Patrick Roche were both ejected for arguing umpires calls. Huckaby was ejected after he was called out from a close tag at home plate by Colts catcher Jesse Tierney. Roche was ejected after arguing a strikeout.

Greeley Grays manager Dan Zuberbier said the controversial calls went against his team.

“The only thing I'll say about the calls is, it's hard to get back into a game when we get calls like that,” Zuberbier said courtesy of greeleytribune.com. “It's hard to get the momentum going again.”

Goodwin however, disagrees with this statement.

“It’s baseball. Shoot, I didn’t feel we got a call the whole month of June,” Goodwin said. “Honestly, if they believe that’s why they got beat that game, then they’re sort of mistaken and we’ll have our opportunity to prove it on Thursday.”