Broncbusters blow early lead; lose to Johnson County in game one

Overland Park, KS-Oklahoma State commit, Josiah Golden, who just six days ago set Johnson County's single-season all-time wins record after posting his 20^th victory, appeared human on Wednesday. 

Still, fourth-ranked Johnson County found a way in the end. 

Carter Kelley hit a game-tying home run in the ninth, catcher Cody Kilpatrick committed a throwing error that allowed the winning run to score, and the Cavaliers erased a five-run deficit to beat Garden City, 8-7 in game one of their Region VI opening-round series on Wednesday afternoon.  

The loss spoiled a fantastic performance by Broncbuster starter, Bradley Feezer, who allowed two runs on four hits over four innings. Alexander Paniagua yielded two runs in relief before Jace Reid gave up four including the solo blast in the ninth. 

Golden surrendered five runs during a disastrous third inning, which included Roy Higinbotham's towering grand slam that gave the Broncbusters a 5-0 advantage. 

In the bottom half though, a pair of errors eventually led to Miken Miller's RBI groundout. Jeremy Comer followed with a run-scoring single to make it 5-2. Easton Roe added an RBI double in the fifth, and Chris Mancinas ripped an RBI single to left to cut the deficit to one. 

In the seventh, Reid hit the leadoff man, Ryker Edwards reached on a fielder's choice; then scored the tying run on a wild pitch. Another errant pitch an inning later gave the Cavaliers a 6-5 edge. 

Garden City responded in the ninth when Karson Evans singled home two to give the Broncbusters the lead back. 

That's when the theatrics started. 

Reid walked Edwards to begin the bottom of the ninth. After Mancinas grounded out, Drew Veach, who pinch ran for Edwards, was thrown out trying to steal third. But with two outs, Kelley crushed a breaking ball over the fence in left to tie it. McClure followed with a single before Reid walked Bo Shinkle. That was compounded by the fact that Kilpatrick threw the ball into center field allowing McClure to score the winning run. 

The Cavaliers, which moved one step closer to clinching the series, won their sixth straight and game to improve to 46-11. They are 21-1 in their last 22 games. 

Sean Philpotts finished 3-for-4 at the plate for Garden City, which fell to 22-34 overall. 

Game two is set for Thursday at 1 p.m. CDT.