Garden City drops home battle with McCook

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-What started well, didn't end well for Garden city on Wednesday.

Ricardo Hernandez went deep, Trevor Pacheco collected three hits, and McCook erased an early deficit to beat the Broncbusters 9-4 at Williams Stadium.

Garden City got off to a fast start in the bottom of the first. Kyle Jameson doubled with one out, and Ibrahim Rodriguez brought him around with a single up the middle, putting the Broncbusters up 1-0.

McCook answered in the second. With two outs, Rhett Halstead threw four straight pitches out of the zone, eventually setting up Trey Taliaferro, who singled to shallow right, tying the game 1-1.

The Broncbusters took their final lead of the day in the home half, which was aided by a dropped third strike that allowed Tommy Alitz, who led off the inning with a walk, to take second. The next batter, Darrian Escobar-Winter, drove him in with an RBI base hit making it 2-1.

The score stayed that way until the fifth. The Indians scored three runs, powered by Hernandez's two-run shot off of Halstead that put McCook in front 4-2.

Garden City though rallied again in the sixth. With two outs,  Leonel Anaya clubbed an RBI single to right before Alitz scored on an error by second baseman Anthony Nieves Soto to knot things up at 4.

But again, the bullpen couldn't hold it.

In the seventh, Owen Mitchell yielded back-to-back free passes to begin the inning. After a fielder's choice advanced the runners, Kade Wroot hit as sacrifice fly that gave the Indians the lead for good. Then in the eighth, McCook put the game away. Zayne Watson smoked an RBI double; then scored on a wild pitch. They added another on an error, giving the Indians a five-run cushion.

Garden City put two on in the eighth and failed to score when Cullen Glosson, who made his season debut, struck out looking. In the ninth, the Broncbusters went down in order.

Mitchell took the loss for Garden City, giving up the go-ahead run in the seventh. Halstead, who started the game, gave up four runs on nine hits in four innings. He fanned seven and walked one. The Broncbusters used seven different pitchers.

McCook starter Austin Matthews was pulled after just three innings, giving up two runs on four hits in three innings. Then, the bullpen took control, allowing just two runs over the final six innings.

Next up: Garden City vs. Iowa Western-Saturday, Feb. 15-2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at Williams Stadium.