Ueta's 12 K's help Broncbusters surge past Southeast in game two

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimpin

Garden City, KS-Chris Finnegan finally got the pitching performance he was looking for.

Chris Ueta struck out 12 in six masterful innings, Connor Camden blasted his second homer of the season, and Garden City snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over Southeast Friday night at Williams Stadium. The Broncbusters improved to 2-7 overall.

Trailing 2-1 in the third, Joseph Bonfiglio ripped a one-out, run-scoring double to left to knot the score. Three batters later, Camden gave the Broncbusters the lead with a hard single to center. But the freshman's biggest contribution came three innings later when he connected on a first-pitch fastball from Ryan Courtney and deposited it over the left-field fence. Ryan Muniz added an RBI single, and the Broncbusters were ahead 5-2.

Meantime Ueta had it going, striking out the side in the both the second and fifth innings. In the sixth, he fanned Zach Johnson with a nasty curveball before getting Ethan Hergert to chase an 0-2 breaking ball in the dirt. In all, his 12 punchouts were five shy of tying Terry Christopher (1986) and Jeff Vanderplus (1979) for the most in a single game in school history.

Ueta notched his first win on the bump, yielding just two runs on four hits in six innings. Camden finished 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI, and Geoff Marlow drew three free passes.

Will Volenec took the loss for Southeast, giving up two runs on three hits in one inning.