The Rangers reeled off their 7th straight win, improving to 17-7 on the season by knocking off the Orioles 5-4 on Sunday at Valley View HS.

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Playing in their 11th game this season with a 3 runs or less differential, the Rangers needed late-inning heroics to pull out this victory.

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Nick Gilmore kicked things off for the Rangers in the bottom of the first with a leadoff walk. Rob Pederson pushed him to third with a single. Ben Schooler plated Gilmore for the first run of the game on a sac fly to center field. With Pederson at second, Eric Becker's hard groundball to first was misplayed, allowing Rob to score.

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The bottom of the third saw singles in succession from Jaret Quinn, Gilmore, and Pederson, giving the Rangers a 3-0 advantage.

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Starting pitcher Kenny Owens was in cruise control, blanking the O's through the first 5 frames. In the top of the 6th, the O's finally mustered together a couple runs. Owens K'd 7 batters in his 6 innings of work and left with a 3-2 lead.

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Ben Schooler relieved Owens in the 7th. He issued a leadoff walk, but a fielding miscue allowed the tying run to score. Schooler struck out the next batter and got a double play to end the damage.

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In the top of the 8th, Ezra Deitering doubled down the line and scored the go-ahead run for the Orioles after John Rosenmayer singled. But Schooler got a couple punchouts and a flyout to give the Rangers a chance in the bottom of the 8th.

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Chris Ridl, playing in his final regular season game as a Ranger, worked a leadoff walk. The wily veteran Joe Becker laid down a perfect bunt single down the third baseline, allowing Ridl to scamper around to third. Becker tweaked his quad and was replaced by Mike Seebock on the basepaths. An errant pickoff attempt at first base, allowed Ridl to score the tying run. After a groundout put the go-ahead runner on third, Nick Gilmore laced a single to center to give the Rangers a 5-4 lead.

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Ryan Kirkendall entered in the 9th and put the first two batters on via the walk, but struck out the next 3 batters to record his 2nd save of the season, and the 8th save as a team.