Garden City pummels North Platte

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Vernon, TX-So how do you bounce back from a run-rule loss in Friday's opener? By slugging out a season-high 24 hits and 18 runs, that's how.

Madison Biller hit a homer and drove in a career-high six runs, Gaby Hernandez and Audrey Graf each collected four hits, and Garden City destroyed North Platte 18-5 in a six-inning run rule at Wade Kirk Field.

The Broncbusters put two on the board in the second when Ellie Walters slugged a double to the gap in right. An inning later, Biller tripled home a pair and Megan Waltz added an RBI groundout to make it 5-0. After North Platte got a run back in their half of the third, Biller sent Chloe Sutherland's hanging breaking ball over the fence in center-a two-run bomb that stretched the lead to 7-1 in the fifth. Later in the inning, Zoe Canaday singled home two, Hernandez slugged an RBI single, and Graf powered a double to right to make it 11-1.

Once North Platte scored three in the bottom of the fifth, the Broncbusters answered emphatically in the sixth. Walters mashed an RBI single, Jamie Wolf clubbed a bases-clearing double, Hernandez smoked a line drive to left, and Biller plated two on a hot-shot ground ball to right.

Biller bounced back after struggling against Vernon to notch her third win of the season in the circle, yielding five runs on eight hits in six innings. She walked four. Meantime, everyone in the lineup, except Encinias, had at least one hit.

Next up: Garden City vs. North Platte-12 p.m. and Vernon at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22.