Ouch; GC run ruled in Clanton finals

Garden City, Kan (westernkansasnews.com)-Garden City spent the better part of two days making the case that they were indeed the best team in the 12-team field. But it took a five minute bus ride from Clint Lightner Field to Williams Stadium to dispel that notion. 

The Elite committed eight errors, which accounted for nine unearned runs, and mustered only five hits in a 10-0, five-inning run-rule loss to the Butler County Cubs in the championship game of the 27th annual Jim Clanton Memorial Tournament on Sunday afternoon.

“We weren’t ready,” Head Coach Lyle Befort said afterwards. “We came back here and just stunk it up. We weren’t excited. We weren’t pumped up. We just weren’t ready to win it. Butler wanted it more than us.”

And was that ever apparent in the top of the first. With one out, Michael Albright hit what looked like a routine ground ball to second base. But Derek Cook booted it-allowing Albright to reach. Two more errors pushed him to third before Justin Ash singled him home. Two batters later, Blake Crager hit a run-scoring single before Casey Garner’s RBI ground out pushed the Cubs lead to 3-0. 

The scored stayed that way until the third when Cooper Minnick hit a rope single to right field-scoring Albright from second. That was followed up by two more errors by cook that pushed two Butler runs across to make it 6-0. 

“We were throwing the ball all over the place,” Befort said. “I could tell in the very first inning what was going to happen.”

The Cubs put the game out of reach with two runs in the fourth and two in the fifth. 

Meantime, Garden City (17-3) couldn’t figure out Butler County pitching. Ash scattered five hits in a complete-game gem. Elite starter Daven Acker was equally impressive-yielding just one earned run on four hits. Isaiah Rodriguez threw an inning of scoreless relief. 

“Isaiah showed me some stuff,” Befort said. “He will probably move up in the rotation.”

Next up: Garden City at Ulysses-Tuesday, July 1-6 p.m. & 8 p.m. 

Box Score: gcelite_butler

Scores

19 Division

Finals

Butler County Cubs 10, Garden City Elite 0 (5 inn.)

Semifinals

Garden City Elite 3, Dodge City Sr. Rangers 1

Butler County Cubs 5, Lamar, Colo. Warriors 0

Quarterfinals

Butler County Cubs 7, Columbine, Colo. Elite 4

Dodge City Sr. Rangers 10, Goodland Outlaws 2

16 and under

Finals

Butler County Yankees 19, Liberal Rattlers 1

Third Place

Ulysses 4, Garden City Bombers 0

Fifth Place

Butler County Cubs 7, Widefield, Colo. Gladiators 3

Seventh Place

Dodge City Jr. Rangers 15, Minneola 5

14 and under

Finals

SW Hitters 15, Liberal Rattlers 5