Laramie Rangers Welcome Back the Dooley Oil Classic
For the first time since 2019, the Laramie Rangers will host the Dooley Oil Classic wood bat baseball tournament at Cowboy Field this weekend.
This will be the 13th edition of the Dooley Oil Classic. Teams from three different states are in this year’s field.
The tournament was not held in the COVID season of 2020 or last year, as Laramie had difficulty finding teams to attend.
Now that it’s back, this year’s eight-team field sees the Laramie Rangers American Legion baseball program hosting in-state foes in the Douglas Cats and Rock Springs Stallions, plus four teams from Colorado and one from Nebraska. The four from Colorado include the Greeley Gojo’s, Gene Taylor Baseball Club from Grand Junction, Highland, and Jefferson Academy. The Westco Zephyrs from Scottsbluff, NE round out the field.
Rangers’ manager Aaron Lozano is happy to have this event back on the schedule and is very appreciative of the title sponsor, Dooley Oil.
“When you talk about the Dooley family and that business, and how much they’ve given to Laramie Rangers Baseball over the years and Laramie Youth Baseball over the years, they are just as good of a sponsor as you can expect.”
Lozano added that they’re excited to finally be able to put on the ‘big’ tournament.
“They switched the name over to the younger tournament (for the ‘B’ team) last year, and that was awesome. We kept the sponsorship and all over that, but it’s good to have it back in sort of the limelight if you will.”
The tournament is broken down into two, four-team pools. Pool A is Laramie, Greeley, Gene Taylor, and Jefferson Academy. Pool B is Douglas, Rock Springs, Highland, and Westco. The full tournament schedule is below.
Laramie (15-8) will open the tournament at noon on Thursday versus Jefferson Academy. The Rangers will then play in the primetime game on Friday and Saturday. They take on the Greeley Gojo’s at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Gene Taylor at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Sunday is match play. Who and when you play on Sunday is determined by how you finish in the pool play.
Laramie is coming off a 3-1 record at the Veteran’s Classic in Rapid City, SD. They beat Mitchell (SD) 7-6, Pierre (SD) 6-1, and Outlaw Baseball Club from Miles City (MT) 7-6 in eight innings. Their lone loss was to host Rapid City Post 22, 7-3. Their final game of that tournament was rained out.
KOWB radio will broadcast all of the Laramie games live this weekend. Coverage starts 15 minutes prior to the first pitch. You can listen on the radio at AM 1290, through the KOWB app, online, and through smart speakers.
This is the full tournament schedule:
Thursday, June 9
12:00 pm Jefferson vs. Laramie
2:30 pm Douglas vs. Rock Springs
5:00 pm Greeley vs. Gene Taylor
Friday, June 10
9:30 am Jefferson vs. Gene Taylor
12:00 pm Douglas vs. Highland
2:30 pm Westco vs. Highland
5:00 pm Westco vs. Rock Springs
7:30 pm Greeley vs. Laramie
Saturday, June 11
12:00 pm Westco vs. Douglas
2:30 pm Rock Springs vs. Highland
5:00 pm Greeley vs. Jefferson
7:30 pm Gene Taylor vs. Laramie
Sunday, June 12
8:00 am Pool A #4 vs. Pool B #4
10:30 am Pool A #3 vs. Pool B #3
1:00 pm Pool A #2 vs. Pool B #2
3:30 pm Pool A #1 vs. Pool B #1