Broncbusters swept in home finale

Garden City, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–In their home final on Thursday, the Garden City Broncbusters were looking to pick up at least one win against the Barton Cougars. Unfortunately for the Busters, they were unable to get much offense going, as they were swept 13-0 and 14-1 at Williams Stadium.

In the first game, Barton put the game away early on with eight runs in the first inning, taking advantage of several walks and hit batters in the inning. Garden City was able to load the bases in the bottom of the first, but were unable to bring a home run. The Busters left two more runners on in the second inning. The wouldn’t have a baserunner left the rest of the game. It wouldn’t be until the top of the fourth inning when the Cougars would get on the board, as they plated five runs to expand their lead to 13-0. Garden City would get a single in the bottom of the fifth, but would be called out at second on a single attempted to be stretched into a double.

Reece Hemmerling went all five innings, giving up four hits and had five strikeouts for the win. Cesar Gomez drove in three runs for the Cougars. Garden City’s Andrew Bowman was unable to record an out and took the loss, as he surrendered seven runs on two hits. 

The finale saw Barton jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first four innings. Garden City would collect just two hits in the finale and their first came in the bottom of the first. Despite just having two hits, the Busters got a run across in the fourth inning on an RBI walk to pull to within 3-1. In the fifth, the Cougars added two more runs, but blew the game open with a seven-run sixth, and topped the night off with two runs in the seventh to pick up a 14-1 win.

Aidan Sowers gave up a run on two hits in five innings of work, as he had five strikeouts. Brock Howard drove in three runs for Barton, who had 12 hits in the second game. Broncbusters starter Matthew Lorencz allowed three runs on four hits with two strikeouts in four innings to take the loss. Steven Mesa had an RBI walk in the loss, that came in the fourth inning.

Garden City is now 6-43 overall, 2-28 in league play, and will play at Barton Friday afternoon at 1 pm and 3 pm to wrap up their season.