WHEATLAND – The Torrington Tiger junior Legion team improved to 4-0 in conference play with a sweep of the Wheatland Lobos on Saturday.
The Tigers got off to a hot start at the plate in the 17-5 and 19-0 victories over the Lobos.
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WHEATLAND – The Torrington Tiger junior Legion team improved to 4-0 in conference play with a sweep of the Wheatland Lobos on Saturday.
The Tigers got off to a hot start at the plate in the 17-5 and 19-0 victories over the Lobos.
Ayden Desmond led off the game with a triple, and Brady Cook answered with a double to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead.
It was the first of eight runs scored in the opening frame.
“We came out red hot with the bat,” Tiger coach Morgan Desmond said.
Mac Hibben, Anthony Moser, Wyler Fisher, Tyler Nicolay and Barrett Eichenberger also got hits for the Tigers in the first inning.
The Tigers ended up batting around in the first, and Ayden Desmond was halfway to hitting through the cycle in only one inning with a double in his second at-bat.
“We were smacking the ball. That set the tone for the whole night,” Morgan Desmond said. “We hit very, very well. That’s all any coach could ask for offensively. It was a hit parade all night.”
It wasn’t just the hitting for the Tigers, as the pitching also proved effective in the sweep.
“We were trying to save some pitching for Laramie,” Morgan Desmond said. “I didn’t want to make any arms sore or get in trouble with the pitch count.
The Tigers pitched by committee with no hurler throwing more than 45 pitches.
“Everyone threw very well,” Morgan Desmond said.
In the second game, the coach was able to start some of the younger players for some valuable playing time, emphasizing quality at-bats.
That’s what he got from his players.
“They showed some early maturity – for this part of the season – working the count for some walks. Ty Albaugh ended up scoring a run in the first inning of the second. William Knowlton also ended working a walk and scoring.”
In the early going of game two, it was much closer than game one, and it wasn’t until the fifth inning when the Tiger offense exploded again.
“With the younger guys, the game was a little bit closer up until the fifth inning,” Morgan Desmond said. “I put my older guys back in to finish things out. They exploded like we did in the first inning of the first game.”
The Tigers ended up plating 12 runs in the top half of the fifth to close out the game.
“Their pitching fell apart,” the Torrington coach said. “They were at a point where they were about out of pitching and had to save a couple guys for Gillette (on Monday).”
The younger Tiger team returned to action on Tuesday with a road conference doubleheader in Laramie before they have a little bit of time off.
“We’ll have a bunch of practices, get healed up, caught back up and help Rob (Mortimore) with his tournament,” Morgan Desmond said. “We should be in a good spot and well rested for a pretty tough stretch. We’ve got some pretty tough games coming up in the schedule, but we have to challenge those boys to get them ready for competition they’ll see at state.”
The Tigers return to action on Monday, June 14 at Rushville, Neb., with a 6 p.m. first pitch, before returning back to Jirdon Park two days later on the June 16 for a doubleheader against conference foe Cheyenne.
