Mustangs finish third at district tournament, clinch state berth

Playing some of their best baseball of the season, the Lovell Mustangs punched their ticket to the state tournament with a 3-1 record at the Class A West District Tournament in Green River over the weekend.
The Mustangs edged tournament host Green River Friday evening, fell to Cody Saturday 12-2, qualified for State by beating Riverton 7-3 Sunday, then whipped up on Evanston 16-3 to place third.
“I felt like we had a good weekend and played pretty well all the way around,” manager Michael Jameson said. “I think all weekend our pitchers threw real well for us. I think we played good defense, and offensively, I thought we swung it pretty well.
“I think at times we hit some baseballs pretty hard that ended up being right at people. And we maybe didn’t necessarily take advantage of some of those opportunities that we had. But I felt like, overall, we hit the ball hard.”
Game one Friday was a well-played defensive battle as three Lovell pitchers limited Green River to two hits and one run while walking two and striking out nine. Green River pitcher Skyler Lee was almost as tough, allowing two runs on eight hits and two walks.
Lovell scored first, plating one run in the top of the first inning when Carlos Rodriguez singled, stole second and scored on a two-out double by Alex Hedges. The Mustangs added a second run in the fourth when Lafe Files drew a walk, raced to third on a double by Cash Wassmer and scored on a wild pitch.
Meanwhile, Lovell pitchers Tucker Jackson and Hedges were putting a row of zeros on the scoreboard until the bottom of the sixth, when the Knights scored on a two-out infield error. But Jacob Bischoff relieved Hedges and retired the final batter on a fly ball to center. He got the home team out one, two, three in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the win.
Jackson was perfect until being relieved due to a pitch count that would allow him to throw on Sunday, retiring all 11 batters he faced, striking out seven. Hedges allowed one run on two hits and two walks in two innings of work, fanning one, and Bischoff retired the four batters he faced.
Wassmer led the Mustangs with a two-for-three performance at the plate.
“The plan was to keep him (Jackson) under 45 pitches, so we’d be able to bring him back for Sunday and have him wherever we sat at that point,” Jameson said. “Fortunately, those other guys came in and did a great job and were able to keep the runs off the board. It kind of worked out as we planned. It was kind of tough at that point to pull Tucker.
“I didn’t realize until after the game (that he had a perfect game). I knew he hadn’t given up a hit, but I didn’t realize till after the game when the radio guy was asking me if ‘you have any second thoughts about pulling him out’ with the perfect game? But at that point we had our plan in place with what we were going to do. And, you know, it’s more important to get to State and prolong the tournament.”
Jameson was pleased with all three of his pitchers.
“Tucker is a little bit of a power pitcher. He throws pretty hard,” he said. “And he’s developed some good off-speed pitches. He does a good job of throwing around the zone, keeping guys off balance and hitting spots.
“Jacob’s a kid that’s come in in a lot of tough situations. It seems like he’s always coming in with runners on base or in tight situations. And he’s done an excellent job for us, coming in and getting us out of those jams.”
Loss to Cody
The Mustangs scored first against Cody starter Trey Schroeder Saturday when Hedges blasted a two-run home run in the first inning. Cody matched that score with two in the bottom of the first, then added three in the third inning, six in the fifth and one in the sixth to win on the 10-run rule.
Blake Wilson got the start for Lovell and allowed five runs on five hits and three walks in 3 1/3 innings, striking out three. Rodriguez allowed four runs, one earned, in one inning on the mound, and Matthew Newman allowed three runs in his lone inning on the hill.
Rodriguez, Hedges and Newman had the three hits for the Mustangs.
“Schroeder does a good job on the mound, and he’s going to make it difficult on us to score runs,” Jameson said. “We struggled to string hits together. It was just kind of a tough game offensively for us.”
Riverton win
The Mustangs stopped the Riverton Raiders 7-3 Sunday morning to clinch a spot in the state tournament. Files was strong on the mound, going the distance (seven innings) and allowing three runs on six hits and three walks while fanning nine.
“It was a good game for Lafe,” Jameson said. “He kind of struggled a little bit right out of the gate with control, but he’s kind of been one of our dudes all season long. And so we just had confidence that he was going to work through it. From about the third inning on, he was just kind of cruising and really got stronger as the game went on.”
Lovell scored two in the first on a single by Wassmer and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Kyle Wilson. The Mustangs added three in the second on a three-run blast by Jackson.
Riverton rallied with two in the third and one in the fourth, but Lovell added insurance runs in the fourth and seventh to win by four. Hedges hit a solo homer in the fourth.
Bischoff, Jackson and Wassmer each had two hits for the Mustangs, Rodriguez, Hedges, Files and Blake Wilson one apiece.
Final win
With a state tournament berth tucked away, the Mustangs clobbered Evanston, the top seed out of the Southeast, 16-3 Sunday night in the third-place game.
Leading 5-3, the Mustangs broke the game wide open with nine runs in the top of the fourth, an inning that included an RBI double by Jackson, run-producing singles by Hedges, Wassmer and Rodriguez and a three-run single by Blake Wilson. Wassmer ripped a two-run  home run in the fifth to conclude the scoring.
Jackson and Bischoff combined to allow just three runs on four hits and four walks while striking out three in five innings on the mound, able to come back and pitch thanks to careful pitch management on Friday night.
Blake Wilson led the Mustangs with three hits, and Bischoff, Rodriguez and Wassmer had two hits apiece. Wassmer drove in five runs, Jackson and Blake Wilson three each.
“The pressure was kind of off for us; we had qualified for State,” Jameson said. “But like we told them before the game, it’s great that we qualified, but we came down here to win baseball games. And so we wanted to come out and finish strong and put ourselves in the best spot we could for State.
“And so those guys came out and did a good job offensively, swinging the bat. That was a huge game by Blake Wilson for us. He came up several times and, I think, hit two doubles and a triple and played well for us. And Cash got his first home run of the year.”
State tournament
The Class A State Tournament will be played in Powell July 27-31.
As the third seed out of the west, the Mustangs will take on east second seed Torrington Saturday at 1 p.m.
“They’ve got a veteran team,” Jameson said of the Tigers. “They’ve got guys that have played a lot of baseball for a lot of years. They’ve got some good pitchers, and offensively, they can put up some runs. And so, we’re going to have to come out and play well. They’re a good, quality team. They’ve done well on the other side of the state, and we’re going to have to play well to beat them.”
The key at State is consistent play and hitting the ball, Jameson said.
“Our pitchers have kind of been the highlight of the year for us, for the most part, and (the key is) scoring runs,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to score some runs. We’re obviously going to be facing some top-quality pitching. And so I think that’s the biggest thing. If we can come up with those big hits and string hits together and get guys one through nine in the order hitting the baseball, I think we’ll be in good shape.
“I have a lot of confidence in our pitchers that, whoever we run out there, they’re going to keep us in the game. And defensively, we’ve been solid. But I think the biggest question mark is just kind of the consistency offensively.”
If the Mustangs beat Torrington, they will face the winner of the Powell-Gillette game Sunday at 7 p.m. If they fall to the Tigers, they will play the Powell-Gillette loser at 10 a.m. Sunday.
Play will continue through Wednesday.