Big first inning dooms Garden City in road loss

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

La Junta, CO-Garrett Dykstra never made it out of the first inning.

The freshman threw just 29 pitches but gave up five earned runs, Phil Carter, and Trevor Thomas each homered, and Otero beat Garden City 13-5 Tuesday afternoon. It was the Broncbusters ninth straight loss, dropping them to 10-27-1 overall. 

For Dykstra, the nightmare first inning began with a pair of walks and two doubles, which included Carter's run scoring extra base hit that gave the Rattlers a 3-0 edge. Two batters later, Dykstra hung a curveball that Thomas hammered over the right-field wall for a two-run homer. Ricardo Preciado doubled home a run, and Joshua Peral blooped an RBI single into center, giving the home team a 7-0 lead.

Otero added a run on a bases-loaded walk in the second; then made it 10-0 with Nolan Marthaler's RBI single in the third.

Draike Sparks got the Broncbusters on the board in the fourth with a one-out single before Chris Finnegan's team plated two more in the fifth. In fact, they made it a six-run contest after Connor Camden's two-out, RBI single in the seventh. But that's as close as they got the rest of the way as Carter responded in the bottom half with a two-run homer to make it 13-5.  

Dakota Pruitt picked up the win for Otero, allowing three runs on seven hits in five innings. He struck out five and walked two. Yosuke Fujie was 2-for-3 with three runs scored, and Carter knocked in four.

Sparks finished 3-for-3 for Garden City, which dropped to 0-7 in April.