Broncbusters beat mother nature and Western Nebraska

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-The Broncbuster offense picked up exactly where it left off on Sunday.

Garden City scored in every inning but two, Jacob Douglas and Ryder Yakel controlled the Western Nebraska bats by combining on a seven hitter, and the Broncbusters blasted the Cougars 9-3 Monday afternoon at Williams Stadium.

"I thought it was a really good day, especially overcoming the weather the way it was," Head Coach Chris Finnegan said.

Cold and windy conditions did not slow down the Garden City (6-2, 0-0) attack. The Broncbusters jumped on Western Nebraska (0-3) starter Jonathan Bermudez in the first, getting back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Corbin Truslow and Darian Burns with two outs for a 2-0 lead. They added a little more two-out magic in the third when Robbie Young scored on second basemen Cole Williams' fielding error.

"To overcome the conditions that we had to play in today says a lot," Finnegan said.

Douglas did allow two runs in the top of the fourth before Garden City countered right back in the bottom half on Truslow's RBI single that made it 4-2. Ty Lightley's RBI groundout in the fifth, and Truslow's sacrifice fly in the sixth bumped the lead to 6-2.

"Our offense was really good today," Finnegan said. "We were pretty aggressive at the plate."

Lightley smashed a two-run double and Clint Allen devoured a fastball that hopped over the centerfield wall for a ground-rule double that scored Lightley from second to give Garden City a 9-3 advantage.

"I thought our two arms gave us big performances today," Finnegan added. "And it was a challenge, considering it was hard to even throw the ball from the left side of the infield."

Douglas finished the day allowing just one earned run on four hits in five innings, improving to 1-1 on the season. Yakel relieved him in the sixth and tossed three innings of three-hit ball while surrendering a two-out, RBI single to Esai Hernandez in the top of the seventh. He struck out six and walked only one.

Bermudez took the loss for Western Nebraska, allowing five runs on three hits. He did strike out 11 but issued six free passes.

Next up: Garden City vs. Lamar-Wednesday, Feb. 14 3 p.m. at Williams Stadium