WHEATLAND – The boys of summer had back-to-back exhausting weeks. Fresh off their championship status in the Spearfish tournament in South Dakota, they came back to Wyoming to a “do-over” game with the Douglas Cats, the same team they had defeated in the championship game June 6.

The effort and intensity were there by both teams June 8, but this time, the Lobos were chasing the Cats for the entire seven inning clash and a late inning rally fell short as Wheatland bowed out to Douglas 6-5. There would be a rubber game that night, however.

Although four Lobos had two-hit games and outhit Douglas 10-8, it went the other way. Cross Hernandez led the team with two RBIs and Lobos pitchers Langdon Goodrich and JP Anderson racked up seven strikeouts, Douglas swept bases at opportune times.

In the nightcap, the Lobos ambushed the Cats early and often and in spite of a shaky first inning, the pitching duo of Mytchell Pollock and Dustin Karr reeled off six innings of shutout baseball. Kade Preuit also got hot at the plate going 3-for-5 and amassing seven RBIs. The final score was 14-4. Noah Whitfield and Ned Hageman also had three hits apiece on the night. Pollock went 2-for-2 and found himself on base five times as he garnered two hits and walked three times.

Pollock was also superb on the mound throwing a good combination of breaking balls and high heat, and when the dust cleared, he had 11 strikeouts to his credit. Karr came on in the late innings to close the door and also picked up two strikeouts in the save.

That was the last hurrah of the weekdays for the weary Lobos as they dropped the Friday morning game to Casper, 5-3 in a game where Preuit once again led the team with two RBIs, and although the Lobes had nine hits, they had trouble getting people home.

Preuit took the loss on the mound          for Wheatland.

They must have gotten their feelings hurt in the first game of the Dean Bullock Memorial Tournament as they came back loaded for bear and ready to fire. The Wheatland boys knocked out 20 runs on 19 hits and it didn’t hurt that a very shaky Buffalo team had seven errors.

With a mercy rule established by the third inning, the game only went five as Hageman carved Buffalo pitching a two-hitter, allowing only one run and notching 10 strikeouts on the K-post. It’s hard to say there were only a few heroes because it was truly a team effort. Preuit continued his torrid pace at the plate, going 4-for-5 and piling up four more RBIs. Goodrich, Hageman and Pollock also each had three-RBI games while Hageman also went 4-for-5. His game was one for the highlight reel both on offense and defense.

Perhaps expending all the energy Friday gave way to a bit of weariness Saturday as the bats were silenced by Green River in a 7-4 game where Goodrich took the loss and then followed it up with another defensive struggle against Alliance, coming away with a 3-1 loss where only four Lobos could find their way to the basepath. Anderson took the loss for the Lobos.

The Lobos will have two home games this week. One tonight at Lewis field is a double-header against the Cheyenne Hawks and then will be back in action Saturday for a daytime double-header against the Douglas Cats with the first pitch slated to cross the plate at 1 p.m.