Broncbuster Baseball Team Takes Two From Trinidad

Garden City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) After suffering a pair of losses on Friday at Trinidad 7-4, 4-3 the Garden City Community College Baseball team came out with a sole purpose to play better on Sunday in their home opening games.  They were able to do that with timely hitting and good pitching to win both games 5-1 and 6-5.

Game One Highlights

In the first game, Garden gave up the first run when pitcher Austin Stone chased down the trail runner on the back end of a double steal.  The confusion allowed Alex Bedard to score from third and give the Trojans a 1-0 lead. 

Stone in his Broncbuster debut rolled through five innings giving up two hits and one run, while striking out six and walking one.  He had some offensive support with a pair of two run innings in the fourth and fifth.  Third baseman Alex Nielsen had a RBI double and Jess Gonzalez pounded a single to score another run past shortstop giving the Broncbusters a 2-1 lead. 

Aeneas Roberson and Nielsen added RBI singles in the fifth inning.  Brennan Geraghty and Trojan reliever Javis Steward each gave up two run on two hits, while Niko Guzman served up a RBI single to Billy Clark in the sixth.

Ray Monje finished up the seventh inning in a non-save situation retiring the bottom third of the Trinidad lineup to seal up the win.

Game Two Highlights

In game two, Garden jumped out to a lead in the second on Shane Podsednik’s two run single scoring both Rafael Villela and Billy Clark.  Nielsen would score one inning later to pad Garden City’s lead to 3-0 on a throwing error by third baseman Michel Dagenais. 

Connor Reynolds then cracked a two run single in the fourth off Parker Valentine to centerfield and the Broncbusters jumped out to a 5-0 lead.

The Broncbusters went scoreless over the next two innings and that drop in the offense open the way for Trinidad to tie up the game. 

Garden reliever Michael Sweetman gave up two unearned runs in the fifth on Alec Patterson’s RBI single and a Sac-Fly from catcher Antonie Major.  The reason that both runs were unearned were because second baseman Clint Allen committed a throwing error to begin the inning allowing shortstop Herman Alvarado to reach base.

Dagenais added a RBI single off Broncbuster reliever A.J. Stephens to pull to within 5-3 and then a deep drive by Dagenais one inning later was caught by Roberson, but advanced two runners tying the game at five in the seventh.

In the bottom of the seventh the Broncbusters took back the lead for good.  It took a little two out magic.  Alex Eskridge double to left off Trojans’ reliever Donavin Buck and the next batter Villela line a deep drive to left and Patterson fell down in trying to catch the ball.  The defensive miscue was ruled a triple and allowed Eskridge to score the go ahead run.

Quinton Bonnell and Monje came in to slam to door on Trinidad in the eighth and ninth.  Monje coming on for the second time on the day had a one out walk to Brock Anderson.  Jaybrien Estevez pinch ran and stole second, but Monje was not fazed as he struck out back to back batters for his seventh collegiate save to end the game.

Coach Chris Finnegan Post-game

Garden City (2-2) is back in action Wednesday with a nine inning game against McCook.  First pitch is at 1pm from Williams Stadium.