Barth goes yard; Broncbusters come back to beat Pratt

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-Tyler Barth is in some kind of groove. And on a day where his No. 1 pitcher didn't have his best stuff, the freshman first basemen had his back.  

Barth belted his second homer of the season, Ibrahim Rodriguez extended his hitting streak to 10 games, and Garden City erased a three-run deficit to beat Pratt 6-4 in game one Thursday afternoon at Williams Stadium.

"These are a couple of big wins for us today," Barth said after the game. "It shows that we're not going to let up."

Things didn't go Garden City's way early. Malachi Crone, who was magnificent last week vs. Butler, came back down to earth-surrendering two runs on three hits in the first. Then in the third, the sophomore was in trouble again. He walked Yibriel Martinez to start the inning before Jake Carroll blooped an RBI single into left-center. Three batters later, Logan Gage drilled a a run-scoring base hit to center, and Pratt was up 4-1.

"We always tell these guys it's the game of one," Head Coach Chris Finnegan said. "It goes from one play to the next. And we were very fortunate in that first game."

The Broncbusters came back in their half of the third. Rodriguez slapped a single to left, Jean Barreto knocked one to right, and Mason Mitchell hit a sacrifice fly, pulling Garden City to within one. Moments later, Barth roped a single to left to knot the game at 4.

"I'm starting to see the ball right out of the pitchers' hand," Barth said. "And it's really clean."

Garden City took the lead in the fourth on Dakota Finley's RBI groundout; then added some insurance the following inning with Barth's two-out solo job to right. In the sixth, Finely mashed an RBI double to the gap, making it 6-4.

"I was just trying to hit the ball away," Barth explained. "I got a ball on the inside part of the plate, and I just let my hands go through it."

That's all the insurance reliever, Raul Garcia needed, working three masterful innings, striking out three while holding Pratt without a hit. He picked up his first win of the season.

"We didn't get very good starting pitching today," Finnegan said. "Malachi was not very good. But our bullpen did its' job."

The combination of Evan Dean, Caleb Ayres and Garcia, allowed just one hit over the final four innings. Barth knocked in a pair of runs, and Finely finished 2-for-4 with two RBI.

Erick Murray took the loss in relief for Pratt, giving up the go-ahead homer to Barth in the fifth. Starter, Richard Mays, went 3 1/3, allowing four runs on four hits.