Mustangs win two to place second at district tourney

With all four teams advancing to the state tournament in Douglas, the Class A North District Tournament in Cody last week was played for state seeding, and the Lovell Mustangs won two of three games to earn a second seed at State.Lovell clobbered Powell Thursday 19-9, fell to host Cody Friday 15-3 and beat Riverton 8-5 to place second Saturday afternoon. Cody went 3-0 to place first, Riverton 1-2 to place third and Powell 0-3 to finish fourth.Thursday against Powell, the Mustangs came out strong and led 5-0 after two innings, 12-1 after four and 13-1 after five, threatening to win the game via the mercy rule – a 15-run lead after five innings. But when starter Jeremy Schneider was removed after 80 pitches to save him for later with the big lead, relief pitchers got into trouble and allowed seven runs in the top of the sixth.“Having beaten them five times, you feel pretty good about that game, but you don’t want to overlook them,” Lovell manager Mike Jameson said. “We wanted to set the tone, and to go up 5-0 after the first two innings and have the big fourth did that. The guys did a good job getting on base. We had nine hits and 17 other base runners.“Jeremy was feeling the heat a little bit, and once we scored seven runs in the fourth I felt we could afford to get him out of there. It ended up working well. We were able to bring him back later to close out the Riverton game.”The Powell outburst cut the Lovell lead to five runs, 13-8, but Lovell plated two runs in the bottom of the sixth and four in the seventh to win on the 10-run rule (after seven), 19-9.Schneider scattered five hits and three walks in four innings of work, striking out six and allowing only one run. Meanwhile, the Mustang bats produced plenty of offense, helped by nine hit batters in the game by the Powell pitching staff, many of them early in the contest.Strong start[caption id="attachment_11505" align="alignright" width="300"] Lovell Mustang Cole Wambeke races around third base to score the run that ended the Lovell-Powell game on the 10-run rule Thursday evening, a 19-9 victory for the Mustangs, their sixth win of the season against Powell.
David Peck photo[/caption]Lovell scored three in the bottom of the first inning on a ground out by Dawson Forcella to score Cole Wambeke, a single by Riley Hill to plate Schneider and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Trey Dickerson. The Mustangs added two more in the second as Dakota Bond scored on a wild pitch and Forcella hit a sacrifice fly to score Schneider.After Powell plated a run in the top of the third, the Mustangs exploded for seven runs in the fourth as Powell hit three batters with a pitch and Hill doubled home two runs. Other runs came home on a bases-loaded walk to Bond, a passed ball and pair of errors.Justin Bacus took over on the mound for the Mustangs in the top of the fifth and blanked the Pioneers in that inning, and Lovell added one more run in the bottom of the frame to lead 13-1.Bacus and reliever Trey Dickerson ran into trouble in the sixth as the Mustangs made three errors, hit two batters, walked two and allowed two hits as Powell scored seven runs to make the score 13-8. Lovell gained some breathing room again by plating two in the bottom of the inning to lead 15-8, and Powell added one in the seventh.“We encouraged them to answer back,” Jameson said of the two runs in the bottom of the sixth. “It was good to see them come right back. Powell obviously had a lot of momentum at the time.”Leading 15-9, the Mustangs scored four in the bottom of the seventh to win by the 10-run rule as Gehrig Sweat was hit by a pitch and scored on a passed ball, Bond singled home Dickerson, Wambeke singled to score Ross Padilla and, after stealing second, Wambeke scored on an error when Forcella put the ball in play.“With a nine-inning game we wanted to get out of there as quickly as we could and save some pitching for later on,” Jameson said.Bacus went 3-5 at the plate to lead the Mustangs, driving in two runs, while Schneider was 2-4 and scored four runs. Hill finished with three RBIs, Bond, Forcella and Dickerson two each.Cody 15, Lovell 3The Cody Cubs chipped away at Lovell starting pitcher Dakota Bond and reliever Bacus to win 15-3 in seven innings. Bond allowed 12 runs (only seven earned) on 13 hit in four innings of work, and Bacus gave up three runs in two innings.Cody scored three in the first, three in the second, one in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and three in the sixth with a relentless attack, picking up 16 hits.The Mustangs scored two runs in the second inning to make a game of it on a two-run error and added one more in the sixth when Forcella drew a two-out walk and scored on a double by Hill.“Dakota competed. That’s a good hitting team,” Jameson said. “We made a couple of errors that prolonged some of the innings. Cody is a team that’s going to make you pay for those. Seven errors led to six unearned runs.“To handle 16 hits, you have to make the routine plays behind him (the pitcher). We allowed the innings to extend.”Lovell 8, Riverton 5The Mustangs battled past the Riverton Raiders 8-5 Saturday afternoon to place second at the district tournament using timely hitting and strong defense to carry the day. Jameson said his team was able put the Cody loss quickly behind them.“We reminded them (after the Cody game) that Riverton was one we really had to have and to get ready that night,” Jameson said. “We were 4-4 against them (during the season), and it would come down to how bad we wanted it. We would have Cole on the mound, and he would always give us a great chance to win it. And he did.”Riverton rapped 15 hits against Lovell starter Cole Wambeke in seven innings, but Wambeke was able to work out of most of the jams. A double play helped Wambeke blank Riverton in the first inning, but the Raiders scored three in the second on three hits and a hit batter.“We turned three double plays in the game, and that’s obviously a big thing when you have runners on base,” Jameson noted.Lovell answered with two in the top of the third. Hill singled to start the inning, Dickerson walked and Wyatt Horrocks was hit by a pitch. Bond grounded out to score Hill, and Dickerson scored on a passed ball.The score remained 3-2 Riverton until the top of the fifth when Lovell exploded for five runs on an RBI single by Wambeke, a passed ball, a wild pitch, an error and a single by Hill to score Bacus. The Mustangs led 7-3, then made it 8-3 in the sixth when Bond singled, advanced on a ground out and scored on an error. Riverton answered in the bottom of the frame with a run to make the score 8-4.While Riverton made several mistakes, Jameson also gave his team credit for forcing the action.“We put the ball in play, and were getting on base,” he said. “We always tell them go put the ball in play make them get you out. Don’t get yourselves out.”Wambeke worked seven innings, and Schneider pitched the eighth and ninth after two runners reached in the bottom of the eighth against Wambeke. Schneider struck out the side to get out of that eighth-inning jam, then allowed one unearned run in the ninth to pick up the save.State tournamentThe Mustangs entered the State Class A Tournament in Douglas Wednesday as the second seed from the North and were scheduled to meet host Douglas, the third seed out of the South, in game four Wednesday at 7 p.m.If the Mustangs beat Douglas, they’ll play the winner of the game between top seed (South) Cheyenne and fourth seed (North) Powell today (Thursday) at 7 p.m. A loss to Douglas in round one would place the Mustangs in a 1 p.m. game Thursday against the Powell-Cheyenne loser. Play continues Friday and Saturday, with a possible “if necessary” game on Sunday.“We just need to make the routine plays defensively and put the ball in play offensively -- cut down on strikeouts,” Jameson said. “We have confidence in our pitchers to keep us in games. We want to put the ball in play and score runs behind them.”

By David Peck