Broncbusters rally past Southeast

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-In Monday's series finale, Garden City found themselves in a massive hole. But if there is one incontrovertible fact, it is this: Junior College baseball is wild. Just ask any coach in America.

Miguel Ramos went 3-for-4 at the dish with two RBI, Michael Wright and Ryan Muniz combined for four hits, and Garden City erased a six-run deficit to beat Southeast 8-7 at Williams Stadium.

But things weren't looking so hot for the brown and gold at the start. Andrew Petrowski, who was fantastic in his season debut vs. Lamar, appeared human in this one. The freshman served up a two-run double to James Valdivia in the second, which was followed up by a passed ball that put the Storm on top 3-0. Petrowski was pulled just two innings later.

Meantime, things went from bad to worse in the fifth. With one out, Kyle Jameson booted a ball at short. The next batter, Matt Goetzmann tripled to make it 4-0. Moments later, Jaxon Walls pushed a ball through the right side before Matt Keating's solo blast off of Raul Garcia in the sixth appeared to be the final dagger.

Not so fast.

Michael Wright led off the bottom half with a triple to deep center. Ryan Muniz followed with an RBI groundout, and Garden City was on the board. A subsequent error and walk eventually led to Will Gardner's run-scoring double and Ramos's RBI single. After another free pass, Mitchell smashed a deep single to right that plated two. Blake Beauchene then scored on a Storm miscue, and just like that, the game was tied at 6.

But that rally almost went up in smoke in the top of the seventh when Ramos committed an error at third that allowed Zach Johnson, who began the frame with a double to right, to trot around. However, on a day where Garden City thrived in two-out situations, the bottom half was no sweat for Finnegan's bunch.

With two down and Muniz at second, Gardner was hit by a pitch. Ramos followed with a soft single to left to tie the game at 7. That set the stage for Beauchene, who sat on a Seth Claybourne fastball and parked it into the grass in center, bringing Gardner home and securing Garden City's fifth victory of the season.

Caleb Ayers picked up the win in relief for Garden City, allowing one run on one hit in one inning of relief.

Next up: Garden City vs. Colby-Friday, Feb. 26-1 p.m. at Williams Stadium