Broncbuster Baseball Continues Surge in Great Bend

Great Bend, KS (westernkansasnews.com) After splitting the first two games on Friday the Garden City Community College Baseball team (27-18, 17-11) took control of the series with Barton scoring 30 runs on 31 hits to sweep Saturday’s doubleheader 16-7 and 14-10 with Barton Community College (24-20, 10-14). Garden City has won 10 of their last 12 conference games and are in the driver’s seat for second place in the West heading into their final series with Dodge City.

In both games Garden City jumped out to big leads. The Broncbusters led 11-0 through 2 1/2 innings in the first game and 9-0 through 2 1/2 in the second game. With the Broncbusters already up 4-0 in the first game Garden City lit up Cougars starting pitcher Brandon Mercer for another six in the second. Nolan Barrientos connected on a grand slam to make it 9-0 and then Tyler Alitz went back-to-back with a solo blast to give Garden City a 10-0 lead. Alitz went a perfect 4-for-4 in the first game and had 3 RBIs finishing just a triple short of the cycle. Tyler Tucker added a two run homer, his third of the year in the sixth.

Chris Bonk (7-0) struggled allowing five earned runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings. Dalton Cook and T.J. Clapper pitched the final 1 2/3 innings to close out Barton.

Saturday’s second game looked much like Friday’s for Garden City who won 11-10 after squandering an early 8-0 lead. This time Garden jumped out to a 9-0 advantage thanks to a six run third inning sparked by Cale Dineen’s two-run double. Dalton Shalberg pitched just well enough to even his record at 3-3. Shalberg coasted through the first two innings then cough up a two run homer to Scott Tyler in the third and solo homer to Grant Watkins in the 4th.

Barton came back from down 13-3 to make it a game with a seven run sixth inning. The first three Barton batters reached before Shalberg was lifted and then Josh Thomas struggled, he retired two of first three batters he faced and then allowed a RBI single to Trevor Turner, walked Scott Tyler and gave up a two-run double to Braxon Byfield. Byfield’s hit made it 13-9 and Barton would add a RBI single from Watkins before Tony Yacovetta would get the final out. T.J. Clapper pitcherd the final two innings for the save. GC Coach Chris Finnegan says the backend of his bullpen saved game two.

After all that offense Garden City scored the only other run of the day when Rocky DeSantis had a Sac-FLY scoring Kaleb Zimmer after his leadoff triple in the ninth to give the Broncbusters a little added insurance.

Garden City plays on the road at Oklahoma Panhandle State on Monday.

Game One Highlights