Garden City pushes past Hutch in game three

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-Chris Finnegan needed length from his starting pitcher in game three. Connery O'Donnell definitely delivered.

The freshman allowed just two runs on seven hits in six strong innings, Corbin Truslow hit a go-ahead two-run single in the fifth, and Garden City edged Hutchinson 4-2 Sunday afternoon at Williams Stadium.

"I thought this was Connery's best game this season," Finnegan said. "He was consistent; he hit the zone, and, for the most part, kept the ball down."

O'Donnell made two mistakes, the first of which came in the top of the first when he left a fastball over the heart of the plate that Dylan Nedved crushed to gap for an RBI double. His second miscue came in the fourth when Zion Bowlin led off the frame with a solo shot to right-center to put Hutchinson up 2-0.

Other than that, O'Donnell was spot on.

He worked a 1-2-3 third, worked around a two-out double in the fifth and worked out a of a two-on, two-out jam in the sixth by blowing a fastball by Christopher Noble to end the inning.

While O'Donnell was dealing, the Garden City offense was sputtering. The Broncbusters did not have a hit through the first four innings, but still managed to scratch a run across in the fourth on Colin Stone's RBI groundout. But the fifth inning was a totally different story. Garden City, playing in just their third home game of the season, smacked four hits in the frame. Griffin Brunson doubled to center, Jake Barber singled to left, and Turner McDonald ripped a run-scoring single to slice the deficit to one. Truslow followed with a two-run single, and the Broncbusters had a 4-2 edge.

"I thought we played really well in the first game today," Finnegan said. "We moved well, and we pitched it well. We didn't give them a lot of opportunities."

The door was officially slammed shut in the seventh when Luis Padilla replaced O'Donnell. After yielding back-to-back singles to start the inning, the freshman got power-hitter Zane Schmidt to fly out to right before turning a 1-6-3, game-ending double play.

O'Donnell picked up his third win of the season, while Barber extended his hitting streak to eight games, going 1-for-3 with a run scored.

Nedved took the loss for Hutchinson, giving up three earned runs on four hits in four innings.