Burns, Five Run First Help GCCC Force Decisive Game Three
Kansas City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) Garden City Head Coach Chris Finnegan was looking for more from his team after a sloppy 13-3 loss Friday in the opener of their best of 3 Region VI tournament series at Kansas City, Kansas, but even he was surprise by the way his team came out.
The five runs came off Kansas City lefthanded starting pitcher Shae Stephens (6-4) and despite having a 7-1 lead cut down to 7-6 the lead never changed hands and Garden City scored a 9-6 win in Kansas City. The win forces a decisive game three for the right to move on to Wichita’s Lawrence-Dumont Stadium for the second round of regional play.
Game Highlights
The Broncbusters had the first four batters reach against Stephens. Capping off the string with a two run single for first baseman Jesse Gonzales. Gonzales also added another two run single in the second making it 7-1 as part of a 4 RBI day for the sophomore.
Rafael Villela stroked a two run triple making it 4-0. Ty Barclay also chipped in with a Sac-Fly as part of the five run fifth.
KCK would not let down. A team that has gone a whopping 25-4 at home this season the Blue Devils (39-19, 24-12) did what they had accomplished one day earlier, scoring all three runs in the second inning with two outs.
Kendrick Catron struggled in his starting role and allowed shortstop Albert Woodard’s RBI single and two run triple to rightcenter from Tyler Pittman. For Pittman it was his third and fourth RBIs of the series and dropped the Garden City lead down to 7-4.
Things would get more exciting in the third when a fielding error from second baseman Alex Eskridge scored Easton Fortuna and Brandon Green added his third RBI off reliever Mitchell Savine to make it 7-6. With the tying and go ahead runners in scoring position, Savine retired both catcher Drew Holtgrieve and Albert Woodard to end the inning and keep Garden in the lead.
The Broncbusters re-established control of the game in the fourth when Eskridge atoned for his third inning error by belting his second homer of the year off Stephens. The blast to left was his first homer since March 19th at Butler. It also gave Garden City a two run lead at 8-6.
Garden City scored the final run of the game in the fifth when Ty Lightley knocked in Villela making it 9-6. The Broncbuster offense could not muster anything against Blue Devil reliever Corey Cowan. Cowan allowed Alex Nielsen’s single in the sixth. The Broncbusters loaded the bases, but failed to capitalize when Villela struck out looking.
Cowan retired the last ten batters he faced.
Connor Burns knew he would come on in relief, but it was much earlier than even he anticipated. Burns shutdown the Blue Devils offense although he had to weave and duck his way through the last six innings.
Making his first appearance since April 14th against Hutchinson and seeking his first win since March 25th versus Barton, Burns (6-2) surrendered two hits each in the sixth and eighth as part of a seven hit outing.
Chase Reddick with the bases loaded flied out to Aeneas Roberson in center ending the sixth. In the eighth, Garden turned their second double play off the bat of Rorey Combs preventing the Blue Devils from bringing in the two runners that would have cut the Broncbuster lead back down to one run.
Dillan Feuerstein warmed up a couple of times when Burns encountered trouble, but in the end Coach Finnegan went with the guy who did so much to reach the final inning with Garden City in the lead.
Despite Burns serving up an one double to Reddick, Burns retired the next two batters to end the game and force game three between the two teams.
Post-game GCCC Head Coach Chris Finnegan
Garden City (34-23, 18-14) will think over who they want to pitch for Game Three. Coach Finnegan says they have a number of options on who they will start on the mound for the final game of the series. Pre-game is at 12:45, first pitch is at 1pm on westernkansasnews.com and the KWKR app.
