Dodge-Garden Split Four Games; Broncbusters Slide From First

Garden City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) The Garden City Baseball Team found out what it was like to achieve different results making the same amount of mistakes.

Saturday the Broncbusters soundly beat Dodge City 10-3 despite committing four errors. Sunday in game one, Garden had the same amount of errors and lost a heartbreaker 4-3 to the Conquistadors and eventually would split their four game series with Dodge. Hutch sweep of Barton in four games means the Broncbusters are tied for second with Colby one game behind the Blue Dragons for first and remain one game ahead of Dodge for fourth.

Game One Highlights

Dodge took the early advantage in game one on centerfielder’s Jake Pederson RBI and designated hitter Jason Nichols Sac-Fly off Noah Draper to make it 2-0 Conqs. Garden scored four runs in the fourth, three of them unearned off Dodge lefthanded starter Jay Rawlins. Mason Brown started with his first of three triples on the weekend and scored on Rawlins’ wild pitch. C.J. Krainock added a RBI single and Brooks Benson gave the Broncbusters the lead with a two run single.

Garden ended the game in the sixth scoring another six runs. The highlight of the inning was Sean Kennedy’s pinch hit three run homer to wrap up the scoring off DC reliever Dalton Harvey. The win was Garden’s 30th of the year and gave them sole possession of first place in the Jayhawk West.

Game Two Highlights

Game two saw Garden City (31-11, 16-8) jump out to a 7-0 lead. Brown and Krainock each had RBI singles and Kyle Lopez added a solo homer down the rightfield line. Mason Brown hit a two run triple and at that point the Broncbusters had scored 17 unanswered dating back to the last game.

Dodge (30-10, 13-7) erupted for six runs in the sixth to pull to within one on two throwing errors and helped out with Jake Pederson’s two run double knocking Broncbuster starter Connor Burns out of the game. Vinny Puma came on in relief to get Designated Hitter Jason Nichols for the final out. Garden immediately opened up a three run lead when C.J. Krainock crank a two run homer to the right of straight away center off reliever Hayden Davey.

The Broncbuster bullpen gave up only one more run the rest of the way to win 9-7.

Saturday Post-game Comments Garden City Coach Chris Finnegan

Game One Sunday Highlights

Game one Sunday saw an attempted comeback fall short. Third baseman’s Alex Nielson’s throwing error and bunt single from Colbey Madewell made it 2-1 Dodge City after two innings. The Conquistador’s took advantage of a fielding error and wild pitch from Garden City starting pitcher Tyler Franek (2-1) to make it 4-1.

Lefty starter Matthew Perea served up a RBI triple to Mason Brown in the sixth and Krainock’s RBI single pulling the Broncbusters to 4-3. Garden in back to back innings left the tying runner at third and in the final inning the seventh left the go ahead runner at second. Brown flied out to DC centerfielder in ending the game. Perea gave up three earned runs in six and a third innings to notch his region best 8th win and Carter Hogan survived the seventh for his region best eighth save.

Game Two Sunday Highlights

In game four, Garden could not muster any offense against Dodge City lefty starter Cole Brandon. Brandon scattered seven hits and struck out two to pick up his first win and first complete game of the year. Only three Broncbuster runners made it to second base and no one made it to third in the loss.

Garden starting pitcher Brendan Peitsmeyer suffered his first loss of the season, falling short of tying Dodge’s game three starter Matthew Perea for the region lead in wins with eight. The Conquistadors took control of the game with a four run fifth on a pair of RBI doubles from both Colton Onstott and Ivan Gonzalez plus a RBI single from Richard Fullerton.

Peitsmeyer went on to retire the next seven in a row, but the damage was already done as Dodge City shutout Garden for the first time in a nine inning game this year 6-0. The only other shutout loss was on March 24th in Corbin Osburn’s of Butler’s complete game seven inning shutout of the Broncbuster 3-0.

Garden City Head Coach Chris Finnegan Sunday Post-game Comments 

Garden City will have a bye from Jayhawk Conference play this weekend when they play MCC-Longview Friday and Saturday. The Broncbusters will be on the road the following week playing first place Hutchinson.