Mustangs rise to third, host Green River Thursday

A doubleheader sweep Friday in Green River propelled the Lovell Mustangs into third place in the tight Class A West of American Legion Baseball, allowing them to host a district tournament series this week.

The Mustangs knocked off the Green River Knights 9-2 and 6-1 Friday, giving the Mustangs a final conference record of 6-4, just behind Cody and Powell who, at 7-3, both received a bye into the state tournament. Evanston and Riverton, each 5-5, and Green River, 0-10, finished behind the Mustangs.

Lovell (27-24) will host Green River for a doubleheader tonight (Thursday) at 5 and 7 p.m., with game three, if necessary, to be played in Cowley Friday at 10 a.m. Meanwhile, Evanston hosted Riverton Tuesday, and Riverton Raiders swept the home team 14-6 and 12-1 to qualify for the state tournament.

After sweeping Green River Friday, the Mustangs split with the AA Rock Springs Stallions Saturday in Rock Springs, falling 12-7 in the first game but winning the second game 9-5.

The Mustangs have won six of their last eight games as they head into the playoffs.

“We’re in a pretty good spot,” manager Michael Jameson said. “I think offensively we’ve played better these last two or three weeks. And I think our pitchers have consistently been good for us all year and have been probably the most steady aspect of our team. But offensively I like where we’re at. I think that consistently up and down the lineup we’re hitting the baseball as well as we have and are getting contributions all over the lineup as well as we have all year.”

Jameson said the team defense has been solid.

“For the most part, we’ve been good,” he said. “Occasionally, we’ll still have a big inning where we let things kind of snowball and get out of control, but those are few and far between. We’re going to have mistakes and have errors. The things we’ve talked about this week are just really limiting those and being able to flush those, even if we have to have somebody call time out on the infield and bring everybody together and just regroup before we let that one error turn into two errors, into three and let that turn into a big inning. I think we’ve done pretty well minimizing those and not letting it get out of control.”

Conference sweep

Two runs in each the first and third innings around a single run by Green River in the bottom of the first gave the Mustangs a 4-1 lead in game one Friday, and Lovell took charge in the sixth, plating four runs to lead 8-1 and going on to win 9-2.

Tucker Jackson got the Mustangs going with a two-run home run in the top of the first inning, scoring Cash Wassmer, and Owen Edwards (sacrifice fly) and Kannon Owens (single) had RBIs in the third. Kyle Wilson (sac fly), Owens (single), Lafe Files (single) and Mac Morgan (walk) drove in runs in the sixth.

Jackson, Edwards and Owens had two hits each in the game to lead Lovell’s 10-hit attack. Jackson also picked up the win on the mound, allowing one run on six hits and one walk while striking out 10 in five innings of work. Rocco Rael threw two innings of relief, allowing one run on two hits, walking none and fanning one.

Owens scattered six hits in seven innings in Lovell’s 6-1 game two win. Owens allowed just one unearned run and fanned five while walking none. As for the offense, the Mustangs scored all six runs in the second inning as Jackson ripped a two-run double and Files doubled to score one. Jackson finished the game 3-4 with two RBIs and a run. Rael was 2-3.

Split in Rock Springs

The Mustangs took a 6-0 lead in game one Saturday in Rock Springs with two runs in the first inning and four in the second, but the Stallions plated six runs in the bottom of the second to knot the score 6-6. Then with the game tied 7-7, the home team scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to take command of the game thanks, in part, to four Lovell errors. Reeling from the bad inning, Lovell bats went cold in the 12-7 loss.

Jameson said the bad fifth took the Mustangs out of the game mentally and was an example of how a rough defensive inning can affect hitting.

“It’s one of those things where, in that inning, we played pretty bad defensively, and then we took it into our next at bats. And so, again, that goes along with eliminating the big inning and letting it snowball out of control,” he said.

Young Dallin Bischoff took the loss on the mound, allowing six unearned runs on five hits and three walks in 1 2/3 innings of work. Wilson relieved and allowed six runs, one earned, in 4 1/3 innings on three hits and two walks, striking out four. Alex Hedges went 2-4 at the plate with a double. Edwards and Jackson added doubles in the game.

Lovell trailed 3-2 in game two before exploding for six runs in the fifth inning to take command en route to a 9-5 win. Files hit a two-run single during the rally, and Edwards, Owens and Jackson plated one run each with RBI singles.

Wassmer started on the mound and allowed three runs, two earned, in four innings on six hits and no walks, fanning six. Files relieved and picked up the win, allowing two runs in three innings of work on five hits and no walks, whiffing three.

Hedges went 3-4 at the plate, Edwards and Owens 2-3 each. Edwards, Jackson and Hedges each scored two runs, and Owens drove in three runs, Files two.

Jameson noted that the Mustangs are now getting solid hitting up and down the lineup, which he said is a key to the postseason. 

If the Mustangs eliminate Green River this Thursday/Friday, they will advance to the state tournament to be held July 24-28 in Sheridan.

“Hopefully, we can come out and just play 14 solid innings of baseball and come out with a couple of wins that first day,” Jameson said. “Green River is a scrappy team, and they’re not a team that’s going to roll over for us. We know everybody in our conference, and everybody, pretty much at any time, can beat somebody. And so we’ve got to come out and play and do the things that we need to do to take care of it.

“I think this weekend was kind of a confidence builder for us going down there and taking two on their field. And I think we’re in good shape. We just need to come out and play clean baseball and drive in runs, and I think our pitchers will take care of business. We should be in good shape. We’re glad to be able to host and have the home crowd. And these guys get to play another series at home.”