Garden City walks off Dodge City in game three
Garden City, KS-All that matters is how you finish. Saturday's late-inning rally proved just that.
Nick Barber collected two hits including a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh, and Garden City stormed back from 3-0 down to beat Dodge City, 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at Williams Stadium. The win snapped the Broncbusters four-game losing streak as they improved to 5-17 overall and 3-4 in conference play.
While Barber will get most of the credit, and rightfully so, Stephen Roozendal was just as important. The sophomore tossed two innings of shutout relief, keeping the Conquistadors at bay while the offense found its groove.
Barber, whose older brother Jake was a gold-glove center fielder for former coach, Chris Finnegan, was the lone Broncbuster to record a multi-hit game. And he saved his best for last.
Trailing 3-1 entering the seventh, Garden City's rally began with back-to-back singles by Konner Hatfield and Quinn Gundelfinger. Two batters later, Kaelan Bing made it a one-run contest with a sacrifice fly to shallow center. That's when Dodge City Head Coach, Brett Doe turned to righty Ashton Jenkins who promptly walked PJ Alvarez on five pitches. Jake Wiley followed with an infield RBI single, and the game was tied at 3. Moments later, Nathan Imel advanced to third on a wild pitch before Barber smacked the game-winning base hit right back up the middle, completing what appeared like an improbable comeback considering the Broncbusters' offensive woes for most of the afternoon.
Garden City was held hitless through the first three innings before Connor Camden's double to right-center in the fourth broke up Shea Walker's perfecto. But he was the only man the Broncbusters managed to put on base until Conner Thompson walked with one out in the sixth. Barber followed with a single, and Camden brought in Garden City's first run when he bounced into a fielder's choice to make it 3-1.
The Conquistadors took an early lead when Andrew Detlefsen, who smacked three home runs in the first two games of the series on Wednesday, brought Zandt Payne around on an RBI groundout in the first. They tacked on another run in the second, and then made it 3-0 on Payne's sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Taylor Dooley, who started the game for Garden City, pitched five innings, allowing three runs (only one earned) on three hits but walked five.