Trojans use the long ball to take series finale

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-It's a good guess that Garden City and Colby will score plenty of runs in 2021. If nothing else, Saturday's series finale proved just that.

Kyle Froehlich and Zach Olson combined to hit five home runs, Colby smashed seven long balls, and the Trojans beat the Broncbusters 15-13 in game three at Williams Stadium.

As they did in Friday's opener, Colby went to work on Garden City's pitching staff. Guillermo Gelpi never made it out of the first inning, surrendering three home runs including a back-to-back-to-back sequence by Froehlich, John Vulcano, and Zach Olson that put the Trojans up 8-0. It was an absolute avalanche, one that could have easily buried Chris Finnegan's team. It did not.

Facing a 10-0 deficit after Olson homered again in the second, the Broncbusters slowly chipped away. Miguel Ramos, who missed all of last season with an injury, singled home two in the third. But nobody could get Olson out, and in the top of the fourth, he left the yard again, this time off of Sage McMinn, giving Colby an 11-2 cushion.

The Broncbusters though made things interesting in the bottom half. Mason Mitchell tripled home a pair, Michael Wright, who homered in game two, connected on an RBI base hit before Goeff Marlow drew a bases-loaded walk, and Ramos knocked in two with a run-scoring knock to center. Four batters later, Mitchell pulled the Broncbusters to within one with an RBI single to left. The following inning, the brown and gold actually took the lead. Marlow walked, and Will Gardner doubled him home to make it 12-11.

But after holding Colby scoreless for three innings, the Trojans drew even on Jake Ticer's, second homer of the series: a towering lead-off blast that tied the game at 12 to begin the eighth. Two batters later, Froehlich smashed a solo shot to right, giving the Trojans the lead for good. They added two more in the ninth.

With one last chance for a rally, the Broncbusters loaded the bases against Colby reliever, Hagen Barcello. But the freshman right-hander got Gardner to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play, allowing just one run to score and essentially squashing the threat.

Colby collected 17 hits and took advantage of four Broncbuster errors. Ticer finished 4-of-6 at the dish, and Olson, Froehlich, and Brayden Cust all recorded three hits.

Ramos drove in four and went 2-for-5 at the plate for Garden City, who still won the series two games to one. Gardner knocked in three.

Next up: Garden City vs. Clarendon-Tuesday, March 2-1 p.m. at Williams Stadium.