LARAMIE – The Torrington Tigers rolled to a 3-0 record at the Laramie tournament and were scheduled to play in the championship before Mother Nature laid claim to Sunday’s games.
On Friday, the Tigers opened the tournament with a pair of wins over the Douglas Cats and the Laramie Deputies.
“It was two big wins,” Torrington coach Andy Brown said. “The starting pitching was excellent. The pitching is a formula for success, and we proved it today.”
In game one, it was scoreless through the first two innings, but in the bottom of the third, Torrington collected two-out hits from Jackson Jones, Cameron Murphy, Bo Moorehouse Jared Myrtle and Daniel Wayland to grab a 4-0 lead en route to a 7-4 win.
The Tigers added two more in the fourth before rain started to fall. Play was finally halted in sixth inning.
Thirty minutes later when play resumed, Douglas rallied with four runs over the final two innings, but Torrington held on for the win.
“It was a little momentum switch, but the guys stayed mentally tough,” Brown said. “They did make a little comeback, but we were able to shut it down.”
Wayland picked up the win.
In the second game of the night, the Tigers got off to a quick start en route to a 15-1 win over the host Laramie Deputies.
Torrington jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning courtesy of RBIs from Moorehouse, Myrtle and Wayland.
“When you get a big lead like that, it makes the game a lot easier to manage. We attacked the strike zone with our pitching,” Brown said.
The Tigers went on to add at least one run in each inning with six coming in the fourth and four more in the fifth to close out the run-ruled contest.
Myrtle earned the win, striking out four over five innings of work.
“That is what our focus is on – throwing strikes and pitching the baseball,” Brown said. “We can hit the ball, and our focus right now is on pitching the ball. We did an excellent job of that today.”
Offensively, Moorehouse, Myrtle, Wayland and Sebastian Doucette combined to collect eight of the team’s nine hits.
The next day the Tigers continued its dominance with a 19-0 victory over the Wheatland Lobos setting up a match in Sunday’s championship contest.
Unfortunately, due to rain, the championship game was cancelled.
The Tigers will travel to Wheatland on Saturday, July 21 for a single, nine-inning contest. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m.
