Garden City Baseball Moves to the Top of Jayhawk West

The Garden City Community College Baseball team moved to the top of the Jayhawk West Conference over the weekend with a 3-1 series win over the Pratt Beavers.  Taking games one, two and four.  Garden City extended their record to 19-3 overall 9-3 in the Conference, but they remain 3rd in the Region VI standings with a 5-3 Region record.  The Busters came from behind in two of their three wins on the weekend.  Garden City was down 2-0 in game one on Saturday and  held scoreless until the 6th inning, when sophomore outfielder Desmond Roberts singled for his first hit in the game and then red-shirt freshman Mason Fischer blasted his first career home run over the left field wall to tie the game at 2-2.  Sophomore right hand pitcher Matt Knotek came to shut down the Beavers in order in the top of the 7th, then in the bottom of the 7th the Busters had the bases loaded when Beaver pitcher Ronald Mustain walked in a run that gave Garden City the winning margin 3-2.  In the night-cap 9 inning game on Saturday, the Busters jumped on the beavers early to take a 5-0 lead after the 4th inning, however, Pratt would chip away at the lead and pull back within 5-4 after picking a run in the 5th, two more runs in the 7th and added another run in the top of the 8th. Garden city would come back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the 8th with four straight hits from the middle part of the order to gain the final score of 7-4 and then sophomore Kris Lalk shut down the Beavers in the top of the 9th.  On Sunday afternoon in game three, Garden City looked to be in control with a 4-0 lead going into the top of the 4th in game three, when the Beavers collected a couple of singles to put runners at first and second, but with two out, Pratt freshman Jordon Jones crushed at three run shot over the left field wall at the 360 foot mark bringing the Beavers within one at 5-4.  The game would remain that way until the top of the 6th when Beaver sophomore Bryant Theis would hit the first of his two home runs in the game to tie the score at 4-4.  It was a pitching duel for innings 7 and 8, but in the top of the 9th Theis would hit his 2nd home run of the game putting Pratt on top to stay at 5-4 and they shut down the Busters in the Bottom of the 9th for the win.  Game four was achieved in dramatic fashion for the Busters, after jumping out to a 2-1 lead in the first inning.  The 2nd inning belong to the Beavers, as they batted around the order and more picking up 7 runs on 6 hits to take an 8-2 lead.  Garden City would get another run in the 4th from Alex Buechler, but the Beavers responded in the 5th with another run to own a 9-3 lead.  In uncharacteristic fashion, the Busters exploded in the bottom of the 6th for 8 runs on 5 hits capped off by two home runs from Mason Fischer and Alex Buechler to give Garden City the 11-9 lead and would hang on in the top of the 7th, as Todd Brazell did a great job on the mound after the early let down from starter Matt Geislinger and Dillion Ayres in relief.  Kris Lalk returned in the 7th to get the save and the Busters collected the 3-1 series win over the Beavers, as the Busters moved their record to 19-3 overall and 9-3 in the Jayhawk West.  The Busters will travel to McCook Nebraska on Wednesday before traveling to Liberal on the weekend to battle the Seward County Saints in a four game series.