Marathon Double Header and Busters Sweep Grizzlies for Jayhawk Conference lead

Usually marathon’s are a running event in sports, but sometimes other sports take on that effect and the Garden City Community College Baseball games last Saturday with Butler Community College certainly did give that appearance. It was an important Jayhawk Conference series for the Busters and they responded with two one run victories last Saturday that took 27 innings to play, as Garden City won game one 3-2 in 15 innings and game two 4-3 in 12 and then followed up with two more wins on Sunday 5-1 in game three and 11-2 in the final game. With stellar performances from both pitchers on the mound for Garden City and Butler in game one, and neither pitcher giving up a run through 11 innings, but it was in the 13th inning that Butler scored the first run, after Grizzly batter Brayon Collie was hit by then pitch putting him aboard, Butler’s Tory Bell singled in the RBI to give the Grizzlies the 1-0 advantage. Garden City would respond in the bottom of the 13th inning loading the bases and Shea Bell the Busters sophomore 3rd baseman would execute the squeeze bunt perfectly, scoring Dietrick Turney from third to tie the game at 1-1. After a scoreless 14th, Butler would again take the lead in the top of the 15th as Collie would score a run to go up 2-1. The Busters answered quickly in the bottom of the 15th as Dakota Kell led off with a double and would score on Kevin Czarnecki’s single to tie the game at 2-2. Then the Grizzlies would load the bases with walks and eventually walk in the winning run with Zac Baldini getting the free pass for the 3-2 win in fifteen innings, this was the longest game any of the Busters players or Coaching staff had ever been a part of. Game two turned out to be a long game as well going 12 innings, but the scores came earlier in this one, as the Grizzlies jumped out to a 3-0- lead after collecting one run in the 3rd and two more in the 4th. Garden City would finally get a couple of runs across in the 5th to make it a 3-2 advantage for the Grizzlies. The Busters held Butler scoreless in the 6th and 7th innings, and would find a way to score another run in the bottom of the 7th, as Shea Bell got on with the walk and sophomore Desmond Roberts singled to score Bell and tie the game 3-3 sending it to extra innings again. Neither team would score over the next four innings, but it was again the walk by Zac Baldini that gave the Busters the opportunity, with a sacrifice bunt by Turney and a single by Brad Michaleski that scored Baldini and Garden City would prevail 4-3 in 12 innings. Two more games loomed on Sunday at Williams Field, who would have the energy and determination to prevail in the next two games. Well Garden City did with another great pitching performance from sophomore Todd Brazell, as he shut down the Grizzlies in game three holding them to one run on five hits, but the Busters would strike early with 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st, add one more in the 2nd and cap off the win with one more run in the 5th to win game 5-1. In game four it looked as though the Grizzlies may have some energy, jumping out to 2-0 lead in the top of the first, but the Busters would respond with 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st, add five more in the 2nd and close it out with 3 more runs in the 6th to collect the sweep with the 11-2 victory. The sweep of Butler sends Garden City to the top of the Jayhawk West Conference with a 20-8 record 32-18 overall. They have a non-conference 9 inning game on Wednesday with Clarendon Texas at home and then close out Conference play next weekend on the road at Barton County. The top two teams in the Conference will host the first round of Region VI action in May 5-7.