Buffalo baseball falls to Liberal

Garden City, KS-To first-year coach Justin Reich’s surprise, two of his main guns were not available on Tuesday night.

Both Cooper Thayer and Lance Allred were late scratches, and boy did the Buffaloes suffer.

Liberal took advantage of a lack of firepower from Garden City as the Redskins handed the Buffaloes a 7-2 loss at Clint Lightner Field.

“We just couldn’t get anything going offensively,” Reich said. “Not having those guys definitely hurt us.”

Elier Arreola’s RBI groundout in the second tied the game 1-1. But it was all Redskins from there.

Javier Bojorquez smacked a three-run double in the third, Rodney Pando hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth, Dylan Thompson added an RBI double in the fifth, and Francisco Terrazas singled home a run in the sixth to make it 7-2.

“We just made too many mistakes,” Reich said.

Two errors, coupled with a solid start from Liberal hurler Braxton Hyde, who threw just 72 pitches in seven efficient innings, was too much to overcome. Hyde fanned four while scattering eight hits.

The loss dropped the Buffaloes to 4-11 on the season. They are currently 11th in the region standings. Liberal improved to 14-3 and are third in 5A west behind Wichita Heights and Bishop Carroll.