Garden City can't dig out of early hole; falls to Colby in game one

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-Garden City's pitching woes went from bad to worse in Thursday's opener vs. Colby.

After falling behind 10-0 on Tuesday, the Broncbusters dug themselves into an 8-1 hole 48 hours later thanks to a home-run barrage. The Trojans hit six round trippers including a pair by both AJ Cortese and Jake Ticer as Colby beat Garden City, 15-4 at Williams Stadium. It was the Broncbusters 10^th straight loss, dropping them to 10-28-1 overall and 3-14 in conference. 

And the fireworks started early in this one.

Cleary Simpson and Ticer both went yard in the first, Cortese smacked a solo job to begin the second, and nine-hole hitter Blake Labuda went deep as part of a four-run third, putting the road team up 8-1.

Dylan Garcia, who has been on a tear of late, managed to get Garden City back in the game with one swing in the home half. After Wil Gardner singled and Connor Camden walked, Garcia blasted a 1-0 pitch over the right-field wall for a three-run homer to slice the lead to 8-4. But that's the only offense the Broncbusters could muster the rest of the way.

Ticer homered again in the fourth, hooking a fastball just inside the right-field foul pole, they added one more in the fifth before Cortese's second homer of the day: a three-run smash fueled a five-run seventh. 

Garden City starter Cameron Sistrunk was tagged for four runs on six hits in two innings. Peyton Walters allowed 11 runs on 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings of relief.

Ticer finished 3-for-5 for Colby, and Labuda was 4-for-5 with three RBI.