Garden City can't dig out of early hole; loses to McCook on Tuesday

McCook, Neb-Daegan Morcom homered and knocked in three, Jackson Yuegar collected two hits, and McCook outlasted Garden City, 9-7 Tuesday afternoon. The loss dropped the Broncbusters to 5-19 overall in front of their four-game series with Pratt that begins on Thursday at Williams Stadium.  

Jake Wiley smashed his first home run of the season for Garden City, which dropped to 2-12 away from home this year. Kalen Bing tallied a season-high three hits, and Jackson Griffith struck out three in a masterful inning of relief.  

But pitching woes and defensive miscues plagued the Broncbusters all afternoon. Caleb Cox's team committed three errors, and starter Caden Blair allowed four runs in just three innings of work.  

McCook did a most of their heavy lifting in the first inning thanks to in large part to Morcom, whose three-run blast put the home team up 4-0. 

But the Broncbusters came right back. Bing singled home a run in the third and Wiley drilled a two-run bomb in the fourth to give Garden City a 5-4 advantage. An inning later, Quinn Gundelfinger's RBI groundout gave the visitors a two-run cushion.  

The lead though didn't stick. The Indians responded with three in their half of the fifth. And after Garden City tied the game in the top of the sixth, Will Edwards put McCook back in front with an RBI groundout in the seventh. Gundelfinger's error allowed an insurance run to score in the eighth. 

Garden City put themselves in position to tie or go ahead in the ninth. Nick Barber was hit by a pitch, Bing singled, and Brett Barber drew an eight-pitch walk. But with the bases loaded, Jereneiel Herrera nailed down the save by striking out Gundelfinger on a breaking ball. 

William Coe picked up the win in relief for McCook, allowing just one hit over 1.2 innings. Herrera then recorded the final out of the game.

Kurisu Ueta dropped to 0-3 on the bump for Garden City yielding three runs on two hits in one inning.