CHEYENNE \u2013 Doubles got the job done for the Cheyenne Hawks on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Three run-scoring two-baggers \u2013 and another that moved runners into scoring position \u2013 provided all the runs Cheyenne needed to pick up a 5-2 victory over Fort Morgan, Colorado, on the second day of the Mark Rob\u00e9rt Classic at Pioneer Park.<\/p>\n
The win was the Hawks\u2019 first of the tournament after dropping two games Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were trying to swing for the fences those first two games,\u201d Troy Nelson said. \u201cWe don\u2019t usually play here, and the fences are shorter than over at Powers (Field), so everyone was getting a little selfish and taking big hacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had more team at bats and weren\u2019t as selfish (Friday), and that really helped us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawks drew first blood.<\/p>\n
Leadoff-hitting first baseman Than Hardy took a breaking ball off his batting helmet and remained at first until Nelson doubled down the left field line for a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Nelson \u2013 who was the Hawks\u2019 starting pitcher Friday \u2013 was the model of efficiency, needing just 41 pitches to get through four innings of work despite surrendering five hits. The left-hander left the game after four innings because he was experiencing some tightness in his throwing arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was locating my fastball and trusting the guys behind me,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n
The Wranglers knotted the score with Nelson on the mound. Jesus Rodriguez hit a one-out triple to left field and scored on a sacrifice fly from Luke Witzel to help the Wranglers knot the score 1-1.<\/p>\n
Fort Morgan pulled ahead in the fifth against reliever Caleb Moore.<\/p>\n
Memphis Dempcy drew a one-out walk before Cooper Chisum singled through the right side. Hawks right fielder Boston Erickson misplayed the groundball, allowing Dempcy to move to third and Chisum to take second.<\/p>\n
Dayton Diorio grounded out to third four pitches later, scoring Dempcy for a 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Cheyenne regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth.<\/p>\n
Will Shaw singled up the middle before Ayden Gamo reached on an error. Shaw scored on Kellin Wenzel\u2019s double to left field to knot the score 2-2.<\/p>\n
Gamo scored when Alex Vines doubled to right-center, putting Cheyenne up 3-2. Two batters later, Erickson laced a two-out double down the right field line that scored Vines and Moore to put the Hawks up 5-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a huge response,\u201d Hawks manager Sonny Bozza said. \u201cWe always say we\u2019re a gritty team that likes tight games where we\u2019re just in a battle and fight with the other team. They\u2019ve done a good job of, no matter the score, staying locked in and staying in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really showed that in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nelson, Moore and Gamo combined for just two walks and no strikeouts. They epitomized Post 6\u2019s program-wide philosophy of pitching to contact and reaped the benefits, Bozza said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always tell the pitchers that we don\u2019t really care about strikeouts as much as we care about filling up the (strike) zone and letting the defense work behind them,\u201d the skipper said. \u201cWe proved that we don\u2019t have to strike anyone out as long as we make the routine plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawks (33-12) close pool play at the Rob\u00e9rt Classic against Fort Collins, Colorado, at 5:30 p.m. today at Pioneer Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHEYENNE \u2013 Doubles got the job done for the Cheyenne Hawks on Friday night. Three run-scoring two-baggers \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2323,2314,2317,2313,2413,17958,167,3437,26384,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,2320,2350,1039,35102],"class_list":["post-743290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-champion-seasons-in-major-league-baseball","tag-cheyenne","tag-colorado","tag-double-baseball","tag-fort-morgan","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-pitcher","tag-strikeout","tag-world-series","tag-wyoming"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}