Offense stalls; Garden City falls in opener

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Liberal, KS-Not all that starts well ends well.

Garden City couldn't hold two separate leads, Madeline Pack and Molly Adams both homered, and Seward County toppled the Broncbusters 12-4 at French Family Park. The loss dropped Garden City to 16-24 overall and 9-12 in conference. 

The Broncbusters took advantage of a couple of Saints' miscues in the first to take a 2-0 advantage. But starter Tara Reid struggled in her short stint throwing 73 pitches and laboring through three innings. She gave up a three-run homer to Pack in the third; then failed to record an out in the fourth. After the Broncbusters grabbed the lead back in the top of the frame, Adams hit a two-run go-ahead bomb in the home half followed by Beth Denney's RBI double. Three batters later, Pack struck again, this time singling home a pair, Ashley Low added a run-scoring single, and Seward County was up 9-4. 

Garden City's offense went silent in the fifth as Amy Schmeckpeper's team went down in order. Then, the Saints put the game away in the bottom half. Macy Cesa-Spearman singled home one, and Denney smashed a bases-clearing triple to induce the run rule.

Reid allowed seven runs on five hits in three innings for Garden City, which lost its fourth straight game. They managed just two hits and committed four errors.

Ireland Caro picked up the win for Seward County, allowing two runs on one hit. Pack drove in five runs.