Garden City High School Baseball and Softball earn wins vs. Liberal
Garden City, Kan. – On a night when both Garden City Baseball and Softball were hunting key wins in conference play pitching was the answer for both teams as fans were treated to two gems. In Softball at John Ford Field Garden City beat Liberal in 6 innings 10-0 thanks to a shutout from Brie Manwarren. Izaih Salinas had a hard performance to follow but he was just as good going 6 innings of 1 run baseball helping the Buffaloes to a 4-1 conference win.
Garden City Softball 10-0 over Liberal
The Buffaloes hit their stride early against Liberal with Kamryn Foster crushing her first home run of the season in the 1st inning giving Garden City an early 3-0 lead over the Lady Red. That would be all the help Brie Manwarren would need as she dazzled picking up 12 strikeouts and scattering 6 hits throughout the game.
Manwarren also helped her own cause with a 2-run home run in the 3rd inning and would follow that with a 2-run triple in the 5th inning. Garden City would grab the final two runs to complete the run-rule win after Yaz Almanza singled back up the middle in the 6th to score the 10th run of the game.
With the win Garden City moves to 6-2 on the season and 2-2 in WAC play. They will play Liberal again on Thursday in Seward County with a sweep on their minds.
Garden City Baseball wins 4-1 over Liberal
Garden City needed a win badly in conference play and for that, they turned to their ace Iziah Salinas who was outstanding on the mound. The lefty worked into the 7th inning striking out 11 batters along the way. In fact, Salinas was so good he had faced just 15 batters through 5 innings helping Garden City to a 4-1 win over the Redskins.
Liberal threw the ball around the infield on a handful of occasions and in costly situations to help Garden City collect all of their runs unearned from Liberal starter Brooks Kappleman. The first occurrence came in the 3rd inning with one out after Luis Varela grounded into what could have been a double play if not for a throwing error that allowed Hayden Bailey to score from third base. At that time it was 1-0.
Later in the bottom of the 5th, the error bug would bite Liberal with 2 outs in the inning. Iziah Salinas would beat the throw from Aiden Schwindt to first base which allowed Carl Bors to score from third. Luis Varela grabbed his 2nd RBI of the night on a triple the next at-bat and Austin Elam would shoot an RBI single up the middle for the 4th run of the game for Garden City.
The 4 runs would hold but not without some concern in the top of the 7th Iziah Salinas reached his pitch limit and was pulled with a runner on 1st and nobody out for the Redskins. Luis Varela entered the game looking for his 2nd save of the year and secured it by getting the game-tying run at the plate to foul out for win number four on the season.
Garden City is now 4-6 overall and 1-3 in conference play. Two more conference games await Garden City on Friday vs. Great Bend from Clint Lightner Field. You can listen to the Buffaloes on 99.9 The Rock with the first pitch of game 1 at 4 pm.
