Richard Anderson photo
Laramie manager Ryan Goodwin, right, talks to Tyler Kipke Saturday at Cowboy Field.
by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org
With the Laramie Colts winning their second straight Mountain Collegiate Baseball League post-season title, and third overall Saturday night, they have now established themselves as the class of the MCBL.
In the league's five years of existence, Laramie has now won two regular-season titles and three post-season titles to Fort Collins’ two post-season titles and two regular-season titles, while Cheyenne has one regular-season title.
Owners Matt and Heidi Peterson have built a winning tradition for the fans in Laramie, but the tradition will continue in a different direction, as the franchise was sold to Dr. Kent Kleppinger and his wife, Nicko, both of Laramie.
“I think it’s great for them,” Colts center fielder Josh Warren said of winning the championship for Matt and Heidi Peterson. “They’ve put in so much time and effort and money into this team. The fact that we could come out and do that at the end; I’m sure it means the world to them. It means the world to us, too. It’s fun to end the summer like that.”
Dr. Kleppinger is no stranger to the Colts serving as team doctor, as well as being a season ticket holder.
It is safe to say the winning tradition will continue in Laramie with some familiar faces returning. However, among those faces will not be Colts manger Ryan Goodwin, as he will step down after compiling a 96-55 record at the helm in three years in Laramie.
“This is it,” Goodwin said. “I love Laramie and I love this organization and I’m going to do everything I can to help them (the Kleppingers) out, but I feel with them coming in as new owners and also me, I don’t want to say I’m looking for a new challenge, but I would like to give another league a try if I’m going to coach next summer. I just think it’s in everyone’s best interest if I step down right now and help them (the Kleppingers) find a great replacement to keep this tradition going.”
The Colts will miss Goodwin's leadership, Warren said.
“Even when we’ve struggled this year he’s always believed in us,” Warren said. “He’s always believed we’re the best team put together. He did a good job of keeping that in our heads and keeping us upbeat. I think that’s the way it ended up at the end because we got here (to the MCBL championship) and believed we were better (than Cheyenne) and we went out and proved it.”
After losing a heart breaking game one on the road Friday, the Laramie Colts put it all together at the right time and won their second straight MCBL title with a pair of wins on Saturday.
Earlier in the day at Cowboy Field, the Colts, 26-23, stayed alive by stopping the Grizzlies 8-3, before winning the championship at Pioneer Park in Cheyenne with an 8-5 victory.
Kyle Roliard picked up the win in the second game against Cheyenne to finish 5-0 on the season. Roliard went 6 1/3 innings and gave up seven hits and four runs, walking two and striking out three.
“The biggest thing people don’t know about Kyle is we actually had to shut him down the last eight, nine, 10 days because he had tendinitis in his shoulder,” Goodwin said. “We weren’t even sure, until about two days ago, that he was even going to be able to answer the bell if we got to this situation. To come out and give us 98 pitches and give us 6 1/3 and get us to the point where we could turn it over to the veterans like Ryan (Forrest) and Nathan (Hardy), I can’t say enough about the effort he gave out there and what he did against a great hitting lineup in Cheyenne. I can’t say enough to the credit of those guys.”
Laramie jumped on Cheyenne early, scoring three runs in the first and leading 8-1 heading into the bottom seventh. The Grizzlies battled back with three in the inning and one more in the eighth, but Nathan Hardy, in for Ryan Forrest, shut the door with a perfect ninth inning for the save.
“We just wanted to come out and play and have fun,” Warren said. “We got the W (win) today. Everybody is flying high right now; it’s a great way to end a summer with a great group of guys.”
Offensively, the Colts finished with 12 hits, led by Warren, Keith Towne, Erik DeJong and Casey Martin, who all had two hits in the game. Towne knocked in three runs, with DeJong and Martin with two RBI each. DeJong had a home run in the game for Laramie.
