Garden City baseball edges Dodge City

GARDEN CITY, Kan. — The two communities of Dodge City and Garden City are separated by 50 miles, but that doesn’t stop the two from being rivals and two of the biggest rivals in the state. The Garden City Buffaloes took down Dodge City in a thrilling 2-1 victory on Tuesday evening at Clint Lightner Field.

Both teams came into the game with a 4-0 record, something both teams aren’t use to being accustomed to.

In a rare game where the Buffaloes didn’t even collect a hit until the fifth inning, they were able to get their first run across in the second inning on poor pitching from Dodge City. The Red Demon pitching staff has struggled this season with command and that wasn’t any different on Tuesday evening.

Dodge City starting pitcher Noah Sowers lasted just two innings, walking four Garden City batters. The Buffaloes grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second on a sacrifice fly from Koby Acker after Sowers had loaded the bases up with three walks in the inning.

Ty Bacon would then come in for the Red Demons in the third inning and would go the remaining three innings on the hill.

Garden City starting pitcher Elier Arreola was superb on the mound, going the distance and allowing just one run. Bacon and Arreola got into a pitchers dual, as both pitchers worked a quick 1-2-3 inning twice.

The Red Demons were starting to run out of time in the sixth inning, still trailing 1-0, they needed to get at least one run across before the seventh. Adrian Mendoza led off the inning with a single to center, followed by a steal and then a bunt-single for Cody Ibarra left runners at the corners with nobody out. Sowers then popped up to first, followed by a RBI single off the bat of Alden Knedler to tie things up at 1 apiece.

The Buffaloes came up in the bottom of the sixth with things tied up and that’s when the bats came alive. The first hit of the game for Garden City came off the bat of Aaron Urrutia to start things in the sixth. Easton Lager followed the Urrutia single with one of his own. After a strikeout from Bacon, Arreola came up big with an RBI single to right field that scored Urrutia to give the Buffaloes the lead back at 2-1. That would be the decisive hit that the Buffs would need, as Arreola went on to finish off the Red Demons in the seventh.

Dodge City will travel to Wichita to take on the Wichita Southeast Golden Buffaloes on Friday afternoon at McAdams Park.

Garden City is back in action on Friday afternoon when they play host to Hays. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning at 2:45 on 99.9 ESPN Radio, KWKR Mobile App or online at westernkansasnews.com/kwkr.

Dodge City – 000 001 0 — 1 6 1

Garden City – 010 001 x — 2 3 3

W: Arreola (2-0) L: Bacon (1-1)