Worland Chiefs fall to Lander and Cody

On the road last week, the Worland Chiefs Post 44 C American Legion team lost to Lander on June 29 and Cody on July 1.

The Chiefs lost 18-3 in Game 1 of their doubleheader against Lander, Game 2 vs. Lander was rained out.

Against Cody, the Chiefs bounced back and played in two competitive games but ultimately lost both games, losing 12-8 in Game 1 and 9-3 in Game 2.

“We got 15-runned against Lander. We struggled throwing strikes. It’s dug us some holes this season, and it’s been showing up the last few games,” said Worland Chiefs coach Corey Davis. “Cody had seven runs after the first inning, but after that, we settled down and chipped away. We had scored about two runs an inning and got it to 9-8 before Cody added a few more runs.”

Pitcher Ryu Moreno had one of his best games of the season against Cody in Game 2. Moreno threw four scoreless innings against Cody and had command of all his pitches.

Helping Moreno out was the Chiefs’ defense. Outfielder Taydren Neihoff made a number of big plays in the outfield to help Moreno throw those shutout innings.

Worland led Cody 2-0 when Moreno exited the game and while he still had more pitches to throw. Davis did not want to risk injury as Moreno showed signs of fatigue.

“We lost 9-3 to Cody, and while the score doesn’t look great, Ryu Moreno pitched an amazing game. He threw four scoreless innings. He just shut them down and only had one walk. He was throwing off-speed and breaking pitches. Everything we asked him to do, he did. Our defense was backing him up. Taydren Neihoff had some amazing plays out in the outfield. It was really encouraging.

“We were up 2-0 after the four innings. I pulled Ryu around 75 pitches. Pitchers are allowed to throw 95 pitches, but I don’t want to push my pitchers past what they physically can do. If you do that, that’s when injuries happen,” said Davis.

Other standouts for Worland against Cody were Kyston Rollema, Eason Peterson, Eli Fox, Krew Neighbors, Kolby Wall and Canon Tidemann.

“Kyston Rollema, Eason Peterson and Eli Fox all had good days at the plate against Cody. All three had pretty big hits that stood out to us coaches,” said Davis. “Krew Neighbors and Kolby Wall caught for us, and it was a hot day. They did a great job, very few passed balls, and it was a hotter day than we’ve been used to.”

Davis continued, “Canon Tidemann’s been a fun player for the team. He’s a super utility guy. He’s played all nine positions for me. He’s hitting the ball too. It’s fun to have a player like that because we put him anywhere on the field.”

The Chiefs pitchers have given up plenty of walks this season, and errors on the field have compounded those walks. It often leads to Worland having to dig themselves out of early holes.

But in the games or innings where Worland’s limited the number of walks, they’re battling and have a shot at adding one to the win column.

“The majority of runs scored against us were unearned because we walked so many batters. Then sometimes we’ll walk two or three, the defense falls asleep, then makes an error and two or three score. That’s how we’ve given up runs this season. It’s not like the pitchers are getting hit.

“It’s something that I keep telling the kids that if we keep working on limiting those unearned runs, we’re going to be in these games next year. It’s frustrating this year, but if we can limit it, we’ve got something there. We’re competing with teams when we limit those errors and free passes,” said Davis.

Getting more strikes from the Chiefs pitching comes down to repetition, which has been the focus all season. As the Chiefs have shown with their improvement at the plate, building that confidence came with a lot of work in practice.

The Chiefs pitchers will do the same and keep working until they’ve added that skillset of throwing strikes consistently.

“It’s repetition in practice. We need to keep building our experience. You can see it with the other teams; they have kids who have been playing baseball regularly. That’s what we’re working toward. Pitching is hard. I’ve told my pitchers this; it’s a difficult position. Everyone’s looking at you on the mound. To help alleviate some of those struggles, you put in the work and some extra time,” said Davis.

The Chiefs have three games remaining on their schedule. Today they host Lander at 4 and 6 p.m., Saturday is their home finale against Buffalo at 4 and 6 p.m., and Monday, they wrap up their season against Riverton in Riverton at 4 and 6 p.m.