Post 6 hopes American Legion World Series run inspires Wyoming ballplayers

The Sixers didn’t merely compete at the eight-team event in Shelby, North Carolina, they shook off being no-hit in their opener by winning a pair of games in the seventh inning. Those victories punched their ticket to the semifinals. Cheyenne led Lincoln (Nebraska) East into the sixth inning Monday before being eliminated with a 2-1 loss.

Post 6’s season ended two wins shy of its goal, but the squad returned to the Capital City with its collective head held high.

“This team kept showing its toughness all postseason long,” manager Ty Lain said Tuesday. “They had a lot of belief in each other and what they could get accomplished.”

Teams that earn regional tournament berths are treated with a great deal of hospitality by local volunteers who make sure they have what they need or get the skinny on the community they’re visiting. That level of hospitality increased 10-fold at the ALWS.

Catcher Kaden Anderson made a point of shouting out Elizabeth Baptist Church for how well it treated the Sixers.

The volunteers even persuaded a restaurant to stay open and accommodate the team after rain and lightning delayed the start of Cheyenne’s 3-1 come-from-behind victory over reigning national champion Troy, Alabama, by more than an hour.

Cheyenne clinched its Northwest Regional title just before 6 p.m. Aug. 6. It had to be on a plane leaving Denver International Airport bright and early Aug. 8. That left players with the better part of a day to prepare to leave.

“I pretty much took my clothes and uniforms out of my suitcase from regionals, washed them and put them right back in to my suitcase,” Julian Romero said with a laugh.

Post 6 had a layover at Chicago’s Midway Airport, but a mechanical issue on their plane led to them circle the city for 45 minutes before landing at Chicago’s O’Hare International to change planes. They arrived in Charlotte in the early morning hours of Aug. 9.

They still did their ALWS onboarding and orientation immediately upon arriving Shelby and finally checked into their hotel around 2:30 a.m.

The following day, they had tournament media obligations, a hitting session at a local junior college and a fielding-oriented practice at Keeter Stadium, where the ALWS is played. It was clear to Lain his exhausted team was sleepwalking through those practices.

Cheyenne’s ALWS debut was inauspicious as the squad was on the wrong end of just the third no-hitter in tournament history, and the first since 1976. League City, Texas, left-hander Jacob Cyr was outstanding that afternoon, but nerves also played a significant role in the loss.

“We had so many jitters during that first game, but we talked after the game about how we belonged there,” Anderson said. “We talked about how we didn’t have anything to prove to anybody, told ourselves to relax and just play our ball, and have a good time, like we had all season.”

Post 6 rebounded with a 2-1 walk-off victory over Ellsworth, Maine, that ended when Romero’s double over the right fielder’s head scored Colter McAnelly from first. Romero also had Cheyenne’s first hit of the tournament when he drove a pitch into center field during the first inning.

“Once I got that first hit out of the way, everyone else started feeling comfortable and started hitting,” he said.

Cheyenne was able to take control of its tournament destiny when League City downed Troy. That made Post 6 and Troy’s Saturday night matchup a battle for a semifinal spot.

Troy right-hander Tucker Jackson fanned an ALWS record 15 batters to help his squad carry a 2-0 lead into the seventh inning. However, Cheyenne rallied for three runs in that frame and got the tying and go-ahead runs when sophomore Kaed Coates singled through the right side. Classmate Nolan Horton got his left hand across home plate just before Troy catcher Matt Snell applied the tag to put Cheyenne up 3-2.

Troy went down in order in the seventh, and Post 6 advanced with the victory.

On Monday afternoon, McAnelly held Lincoln East under his thumb for five no-hit innings. A walk, a hit batter, a fielding error and Lincoln’s only hit of the afternoon resulted in its 2-1 victory. Cheyenne stranded 11 runners on the day.

The Sixers were disappointed they came up short of their goal. But it was clear as the players wrapped their arms around each other for photos or one final hug before saying goodbye that they were rightfully proud of their accomplishment.

“Getting to that point meant so much to all of us players, to the coaches, all the younger kids in our program and all the guys who came before us,” McAnelly said.

Cheyenne had knocked on the ALWS door by appearing in four Northwest Regional finals. It was three outs away from breaking through in 2022, but two-time reigning national champ — and eventual national runner-up — Idaho Falls, Idaho, rallied to deny the dream again.

The group that bid each other adieu under a clear Wyoming sky Tuesday made the ALWS dates at the bottom of each year’s Post 6 schedule more than an aspiration.

Lain expects there to be ripple effects from what this year’s club accomplished.

Former Post 6 star Brandon Nimmo being drafted No. 13 overall by the New York Mets in 2011, becoming a full-time major leaguer and two-time Top 100 honoree showed this group of players what was possible individually. This year’s club showed not just the capital city, but the entire state what a Wyoming team can achieve.

“It’s going to change the mindset of players from Wyoming for a long time to come,” McAnelly said.

Added Lain: “Now they know they can play the game on a national level. No matter where you go, baseball is just baseball. Now they know if you play the game the right way, you play clean and handle the little things, you can win.”