Stone goes deep in the seventh; Garden City finishes off Grizzlies in game two

By Mike Pilosof

Photos by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-Don't expect the 2020 Broncbusters to break any single-season home-run marks. But that doesn't mean they won't win a ton of games, especially in an era where small ball rules. And that suits Garden City just fine.

Colin Stone blasted his third homer of the year, Connery O'Donnell struck out a season-high 11 batters, and Garden City pushed past Butler 6-3 Thursday afternoon at Williams Stadium.

"Last year, I tried to do way too much," O'Donnell said afterwards. "I was trying to one-up guys. But this year, I'm just coming in and doing my job. And we have all the faith in the world in those guys in the pen."

O'Donnell, much like Crone in game one, never seem rattled. He fanned two batters in the first, another in the second; then got Colby Standard to chase some high heat to end the third. In the fourth, after surrendering a leadoff double to Josh Cameron, who eventually scored on a throwing error, the sophomore buckled down and struck out three straight batters: Austin Portner, Brandon Ryan and RJ Lara to retire the side.

"You know, we played Butler at the end of last season and they put it on us pretty good," O'Donnell said. "The guys that are back remembered that and wanted to get rid of that bad taste."

O'Donnell surrendered another run in the sixth but ended the frame as he did so many others on Thursday by Getting Portner to strike out swinging. He added two more punchouts in the seventh before handing the ball over to the bullpen.

"We got two quality starts from our guys today," Head Coach Chris Finnegan said. "When that happens, a lot of good things take place."

Raul Garcia worked a perfect seventh, and Damian Acosta surrendered a walk and an RBI double to Ryan before getting Lara to ground out to short to end the game.

"All of these games mean something now," O'Donnell said. "That's the time of year it is."

Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, the Broncbusters evened the score on Ibrahim Rodriguez's RBI groundout. The next batter, Jean Barreto struck out swinging, but catcher, Colby Standard dropped the ball. As soon as he threw Barreto out at first, Dakota Finley came charging in from third to give Garden City a 2-1 advantage.

"That was a great read by Dak," Finnegan said. "I told him if it's a breaking ball, 1-2 in the dirt, read the catcher's head. The catcher never looked and stopped Dak's feet. So once he cleared home plate, Dak took off, and there was no shot."

Once Butler tied it in the sixth on Standard's RBI groundout, Garden City left no doubt in the seventh. Finley singled and took second on a throwing error. Then, with the infield drawn in, Barreto slapped a base hit up the middle to put the Broncbusters up for good. But the finishing touches came three batters later when Stone hammered reliever, Dylan Richey's elevated fastball over the wall in right for a three-run homer and a 6-2 advantage.

"Now it's about how do we handle this," Finnegan said. "Do we stay bought in? Playing at Butler's place is a different deal. Routine outs will be homers. It's a smaller park."

Stone finished 2-for-4 at the plate with three RBI for Garden City, who won their fourth straight game. Mason Mitchell, and Finley collected two hits, and O'Donnell allowed two runs on five hits in seven innings.

Butler starter, Izack Tiger, went five innings, surrendering two runs on six hits while striking out six. He was replaced by Cade Phelps in the sixth, who gave up two runs on two hits in 1 1/3.

Next up: Garden City at Butler-Sat., March 7-1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on 99.9 FM; westernkansasnews.com/kwkr and KWKR mobile app