Butler pounds Garden City in series opener

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-Chris Finnegan reminded his team that Butler, who only played three games entering Thursday's conference series because of the health and safety protocol, was chomping at the bit to get back on the field. And they definitely looked like a team that was sick and tired of being in quarantine.

Noah Argenta clubbed three hits and knocked in four runs, Braden Meek tossed a complete-game two-hitter, and Butler run-ruled Garden City 10-0 Thursday afternoon at Williams Stadium.

"We just couldn't get anything going," Finnegan said afterwards. "We just never found a groove."

Starter, Andrew Petrowski was just a tick off from the beginning. He walked Jackson Syring to start the game; then gave up a single to Bryce Zimmerer and a run-scoring base hit to Noah Argenta. He followed that up by plunking Josh Cameron on the arm before serving up an RBI single to Jonah Cox and back-to-back bases-loaded walks that put Butler up 4-0.   

Things only got worse from there.

Zach Stroh added an RBI groundout in the 3^rd before the Grizzlies put a stranglehold on the game in the 4^th, chasing Petrowski while scoring three more runs including Cameron's RBI triple that made it 8-0.

"You just can't keep giving good teams opportunities," Finnegan added. "We minimized that in the second game, but we didn't do a good job in the first."

Butler finished off the run-rule in the 5^th thanks to Argenta, who collected his third hit of the day: a two-run single to center that put the Grizzlies up 10-0. Garden City went in order in their half.

Petrowski lasted only 3.1 innings, giving up seven earned runs on six hits while walking four for Garden City. Ayers recorded the final two outs of the fourth and struck out one, and Cameron Sistrunk was charged with two runs on two hits.

Meantime Meek needed only 57 pitches to earn his first victory of 2021 for Butler, who improved to 3-1 overall.