Lady Buffs and Demons softball battle to split

Garden City, KS(westernkansasnews.com) The Garden City softball team and Dodge City split a double header Tuesday. The Lady Buffaloes took game one 5-3, while the Lady Demons won the second game 5-3. The split keeps in Dodge City in first place in the WAC.

Game one

Hailey Dart(7-3) was dominant on the mound for Garden City pitching seven innings striking out eight and allowing just one earned run on four hits. Dart also put the Lady Buffaloes on the board first with an RBI single in the bottom of the first. Dodge City(13-3, 5-1) would tie  the game in the when Caroline Williams lied down a sac bunt and a throw by first baseman Taylor Terpstra to second went into left field bringing Zabree Rodriguez around to score. The Lady Buffaloes would retake the lead in the bottom half with an RBI single by Laura Farmer and a couple errors that made it 4-1. Garden(11-5, 6-2) would make it 5-1 in the fourth on a fielders choice RBI by Erykah Foster. The score would remain 5-1 until the top of the seventh when the Lady Demons got an RBI double from Madison Armstrong and an RBI single by Williams to make it 5-3. Then Elise Helfrich popped out to end the game.

Yaz Vargas helped lead the way at the plate for Garden going 3-4 with a triple, double, single and two runs. Dart went 3-3 with an RBI. For Dodge City Grace Ruehle went 2-2 with a double, single and walk.

Game two

Garden City would score first in the second game with a solo homerun by Hailey Dart in the bottom of the second to make it 1-0. Dodge City answered in the third with an RBI double by Raemie Lopp to tie the game. In the fourth inning Dodge City would load the bases with two outs, Elise Helfrich then drew a walk and Shalyn Turner drilled a two RBIs single to make it 4-1. In the sixth inning the Lady Demons would add another run when Raemie Lopp hit a single to right field that got by Ryleigh Whitehurst and brought Lopp all the way around to score and make it 5-1. The Lady Buffaloes made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh, with no hits Laura Farmer drilled a two-run homer to make it 5-3. Ragen Lopp then walked Dart and Terpstra, Dodge City then brought in Raemie Lopp to pitch. Lauren Koster laid down a sac-bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. Lopp then struck out Giselle Gutierrez  and got Abby Parr to ground out to end the game.

Ragen Lopp(7-1) got the win going 6+ innings striking out four and giving up three runs on six hits. Raemie Lopp was 3-4 with a double, two singles and an RBI and Shalyn Turner was 1-3 with a 2 RBI single. For Garden City Hailey Dart was 2-3 with a double and solo homerun.

Both Garden City and Dodge City will play in a tournament at Emporia on Saturday and Sunday.