Acosta brilliant; Garden City finishes off sweep of Pratt

By Mike Pilosof

Photo by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-In the early stages of game two, news broke that the Corona Virus Outbreak had forced the Region's hand, cancelling all games through at least Apr. 1. So in essence, just like that, this game became a must-win for Chris Finnegan's team.

And they delivered.

Tyler Barth clubbed his second homer of the day, Damian Acosta tossed five innings of shutout relief, and Garden City completed a two-game sweep of Pratt, beating the Beavers 5-2 Thursday afternoon at Williams Stadium.

"We're playing simple baseball," Finnegan said afterwards. "We're executing sac bunts; we're executing some push bunts, and we're putting some guys in motion."

With the immediate future of their 2020 season up in the air, Garden City seemed a bit out of sorts early in this one. After striking first in the first on Jean Barreto's RBI single, Connery O'Donnell, who retired six of the first seven men that he faced, ran into trouble in the third. Austin Hulet singled before O'Donnell overshot Barth at first on a fastball that somehow was thrown behind Carson Cheatwood-deflected off the cap of the bat and rolled up the first baseline. O'Donnell picked it up and threw the ball away, allowing Hulet to score from first. Landon Hulet followed with an RBI single, and Pratt was up 2-1.

"Connery was not very good in this game," Finnegan said. "So again, we were fortunate."

Garden City also missed out on a couple of scoring chances. In the second, the Broncbusters wasted a one-out single by Colin Stone. Two innings later, they had two on and two out, but Darrian Escobar-Winter waived at Keyton Barnes' 3-2 fastball to end the threat.

"I was on edge today knowing that everyone was going to beat up on everyone in conference," Finnegan said."

Garden City finally broke through in the fifth. Jake Barber singled; then came all the home on a pair of Pratt errors-one by the Logan Gage in right; the other by Brody Hanna at third. After Finley drew a walk, Ibrahim Rodriguez, who saw his 10-game hitting streak come to an end, pushed a run home on an RBI fielder's choice, giving the home team the lead for good.

"We came up with some timely hits; that's for sure," Finnegan said.

Barth then provided a little more breathing room in the eighth, tattooing Austin Hulet's high fastball over the wall in right, putting Garden City up 5-2.

Acosta made sure the Beavers had no chance from there.

The sophomore worked a perfect fifth; then got around a two-out single in the sixth by getting Chase Veatch to bounce into a force play. An inning later, he struck out two before getting the Beavers to go in order in the eighth. Then in the ninth, Acosta worked around a leadoff walk by getting Bryan Payton to pop out before Veatch lined into a game-ending double play.

"My mechanics changed so much from last year," Acosta said. "Last year, I tended to get my knee too high. This year, it's more in, which has helped me generate more velocity."

Acosta struck out five and allowed only one hit in relief for Garden City, who moved into second place behind 5-1 Barton. O'Donnell only lasted three innings, giving up two runs on four hits. He committed three errors.

Barnes dropped to 1-3 on the bump for Pratt, yielding three runs on five hits in four innings. He issued three free passes.

Note: Because of the Jayhawk Conference's decision to cancel all games through Apr. 1, the Broncbusters are tentatively scheduled to play Hutchinson on Apr. 2.