Colts hold on to advance to championship series

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

The Laramie Colts advanced to the Mountain Collegiate Baseball League championship by holding off the Greeley Grays 11-9 in the single elimination first-round playoffs at Cowboy Field Thursday night.

Laramie, 24-22, will begin a best-of-three championship series with the MCBL regular-season champion Cheyenne Grizzlies, beginning in Cheyenne. Game two will be in Laramie and game three (if necessary) will be in Cheyenne.

After limping into the post-season, it certainly did not show for the Colts Thursday. Trailing 1-0 after one inning, Laramie tied things up when third baseman Erik DeJong grounded out to first, which allowed Colts first baseman Casey Martin to score.

Laramie used a big third inning, scoring three runs off of two hits. The scoring started on an errant throw by Grays second baseman Nick Huckaby that sailed wide of first baseman Greg Herbst, sending Colts second baseman Tyler Kipke home. Laramie shortstop Eric Cain hit a two-run RBI single sending in catcher Jesse Tierney and designated hitter Keith Towne for a 4-1 lead.

Greeley would make up a run in the top of the fourth inning when designated hitter Rhys Roberts got an RBI walk off of Laramie starting pitcher Alex Alemann.

The Colts answered that run in the bottom half of the inning when Kipke hit an RBI single bringing home right fielder Lee Orr to up their lead to 5-2 going into the fifth inning.

Both defenses held serve for the next two-and-a-half innings, until Orr stole third in the seventh inning and scored on an errant throw by Grays catcher Nick Stepanovich that put the lead at 6-2.

The Colts would some much needed insurance runs in the eighth inning when a two-run throwing error scored Towne and Martin, and Cain would come home off an RBI triple by Orr. Laramie made it 11-2 when Orr scored off Kipke’s second RBI single of the night.

Greeley was not ready to quit playing and rallied in the ninth with seven runs starting with a two-run double by Herbst. Right fielder Cotton Nolan got an RBI walk off Colts reliever Branden Jamison and O’Dowd and Stepanovich scored off a dropped ball by Cain. Nolan scored off an RBI walk, left fielder Darron Lattomus came home off an RBI single by third baseman Patrick Roche, and Leo then came home off an RBI sacrifice fly by Huckaby.

The Colts, however, finally shut the door and ended Greeley's comeback attempt and ended the Grays season.

“I would have liked to thrown the knockout punch in the bottom of the eighth,” Colts manager Ryan Goodwin said. “Once they got a couple guys going, you just had that feeling that was way scarier then we wanted, but a dub’s (W) a dub and you just move on and fight the next day.”

Laramie had 11 hits on the day, highlighted by Tierney going 3-for-6 with three singles.

“In the playoffs, you just got to be able to shut the door,” Tierney said. “I think that’s going to be the biggest thing in these next couple of days is getting the lead and giving them (Cheyenne) no life. What we did tonight is just keep giving them stuff; pitchers are getting behind in their counts later in the game and taking bad approaches, but all in all it was a team win today.”

Alemann got the win on the mound through eight innings, allowing 12 hits and striking out six.

The Colts will begin the championship series Friday against the Cheyenne Grizzlies, with game one beginning at 7 p.m. Game two will be Saturday at Cowboy Field at 12:30 p.m. If both teams split the first two games, then the series will move to a deciding game three in Cheyenne on Saturday at 7 p.m.

“We got (starting pitcher) Taylor Henry on the bump tomorrow,” Goodwin said. “We’ll just go out and take our approaches with us. If we can go out and steal the opening game at their (Cheyenne) place, then that puts us in the drivers seat giving us a chance to clinch at home and you can’t ask for more than anything then that.”

Tierney said it would be big for the Colts to win that first game.

“Coming back (to Laramie) with home-field advantage, with the way we’ve been playing here lately, it’s been pretty good," Tierney said. "Getting up 1-0 on the series is huge; we need to shut the door right on Cheyenne and let them have no life.”

Colts' notes
The Colts will be under new ownership next season, as owners Matt and Heidi Peterson sold the franchise to team doctor and long time Laramie physician Kent Kleppinger.

“We owe Matt and Heidi a lot,” Tierney said. They’ve been doing a lot for us. This is my first year here and bringing home a championship to them would be awesome; it would be a pretty big accomplishment for us.”