Lady Busters Split with Trinidad State Junior College at Home
On a windy Thursday afternoon at Tangeman Sports Complex, the Garden City Community College Lady Busters Softball Team, earned a split with Trinidad State Colorado Junior College, as the Trojans took game one 6-3 and Garden City hung on in game two for a 4-3 win. In the first game of the double header, it appeared that the Garden City women were going to hang on after taking the lead in the bottom of the first 2-1 after collecting four hits from their first six batters and scoring the go-ahead runs from sophomore’s Brittany Knabe and Melissa Marshall. The Lady Busters would score another run in the 3rd, after Ashley Gibson singled, got to second on a past ball and Emily Hurlbert singled Gibson home, giving the Lady Busters a 3-1 lead.
In the top of the fourth, Trinidad State began to chip away at Garden City with a pair of singles at the bottom of the order scoring Laura Trehal to make 3-2 Lady Busters. Garden City could not find any consistent offense and was held to just three hits the rest of the game. The Lady Trojans of Trinidad State got a couple of hits in the top of the fifth and catcher Jackie Booz scored the tying run to make it 3-3. Both Teams were put out in order in the sixth, but it was in the top of the seventh, that Trinidad State collected three straight hits, with two doubles from Kaitlyn Mattila and Jackie Booz, and then what proved to be the game clinching three run home run from short stop Caitlyn Reid, who blasted her fourth round trip ticket of the year over the right field wall, giving the Trojans the 6-3 advantage.
Garden City tried to rally in the bottom of the seventh, but could not sustain the attempt and lost game one 6-3. The line scores went like this, for Trinidad State (6-13-1) leaving 8 stranded runners, for Garden City (3-8-1) leaving seven runners on base. The second game started out much the same way, with Garden City jumping out on top 2-0 before Trinidad would score one run in the top of third to make it a 2-1 game. The bats went quite for Garden City over the next two innings, but scored one in the fifth and one more in the sixth, to go up 4-1. It looked as though Trinidad State would come back in the top of the seventh again, but the Lady Busters held them to just two runs and left a couple of runners stranded, as Garden City narrowly won 4-3 sending their overall record to 21-8-1. Here is a look at the line scores for game two (Busters 4-11-2) leaving 12 on base, for the Lady Trojans (3-6-2) and stranded nine in the late game. The Lady Busters have been receiving votes in the recent NJCAA Polls.
The Lady Buffs are tied with Seward County at 4-2 and runner-up in the Jayhawk West. Butler Community College is on top of the Conference at 5-1 and hosting a mid-season Tournament today, as the Lady Busters are their and could play a possible five games. Next action for the Lady Busters on the live Video Webcast, will be on April 5 hosting Barton County in a double header at Tangeman Sports Complex. You can get all the action starting at 2:45 on the live Video Webcast at www.westernkansasnews.com. (Video Production and photo’s by Donette Brown/WKBC staff)
