Dooley strikes out eight; Broncbusters beat Southeast
Garden City, KS-Taylor Dooley notched his second win of the season, striking out a career-best eight hitters, Kaelen Bing knocked in two runs, and Garden City edged Southeast, 5-2 Sunday afternoon at Williams Stadium. The Broncbusters improved to 2-9 overall.
Dooley threw 92 pitches in six innings with his only real blemish coming in the fourth when he served up a two-run homer to Tyler Bishup. Other than that, he kept the Storm at bay, retiring the final six batters he faced before Levi Tucker nailed down his first career save in the seventh.
Unlike game two on Saturday, the Broncbuster offense got going early in this one. Konner Hatfield walked; then stole second, Bing singled him home, Brett Barber and Quinn Gundelfinger followed with RBI hits, and Garden City was up 3-0 in the first.
Dooley then ran into some trouble in the fourth. He allowed a leadoff single followed by Bishup's no-doubt-about-it long ball over the left-field wall that cut the lead to 3-2. But the Broncbusters quickly answered in the bottom half. Back-to-back walks to Ryan Cherry and Conner Thompson eventually led to a run when Bishop booted a ball at first. Bing then grounded into an RBI fielder's choice, and Garden City had a 5-2 advantage.
The pitching staff took it from there.
Dooley worked a perfect fifth and sixth, striking out the final two batters he faced-Will Barret and Elliot Peterson before Tucker worked around a one-out triple in the seventh by striking out Drew Borner and pinch hitter and former Broncbuster Danny Spongberg.