Garden City blows out Pratt in game two

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-There is just something about playing from behind that fuels Garden City.

Michael Wright blasted his fifth homer of the season, Will Gardner and Ibrahim Rodriguez each knocked in three, and the Broncbusters rallied from a four-run deficit to down Pratt 19-7 in game two Friday afternoon at Williams Stadium.

Unlike the opener, the Broncbusters found some offense early in this one. Kyle Jameson's sacrifice fly scored one run before Cullen Glosson came home on a passed ball to make it 2-0 in the second. But the Beavers teed off on Raul Garcia in the third, scoring six runs on five hits including Marcelo Aguirre's two-run homer and Brenden Tauber's RBI double that put the road team up 6-2.

It was all Garden City from there.

The Broncbusters responded with a seven-run bottom half where the first five batters reached. Ibrahim Rodriguez and Glosson delivered RBI singles, and Wright put Garden City up for good with a three-run shot to dead center. In the fifth, Blake Beauchene's sac fly, and Gardner's two-out, two-run double gave the Broncbusters an eight-run cushion. They added a pair of RBI doubles by Jameson and Wright in the sixth before Ryan Muniz drew a bases-loaded walk. Two batters later, Rodriguez hit a sac fly to make it a 13-run lead.

Meantime the Beavers went silent after that big third inning. They managed just one hit until the seventh when Chase Veatch singled home a run after Evan Dean issued a pair of one-out walks. But after plunking Tauber, he settled down, striking out Cason long before Piercen Dooling popped out to Beauchene to end the game.

Noah McCandless earned his first victory of the year in three brilliant innings of relief, striking out four while surrendering just one hit. Wright finished 2-for-4 at the dish with three runs scored and four RBI, and Tyler Barth, Glosson, and Mason Mitchell each collected two hits.  

Quinn Tocheniuk allowed nine runs on seven hits for Pratt, who lost their fourth straight game.