Broncbusters cough up late lead in game-four loss to Hutchinson

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-Looking to salvage at least one game in their series with Hutchinson, the Broncbusters held a 3-1 lead going into the eighth in the finale. But untimely miscues cost them again, and the Blue Dragons seized control.

Mason Lowe and Austin Callahan each collected three hits and drove in a pair as Hutchinson erased a late two-run deficit to complete the sweep of Garden City, 9-3 Saturday afternoon at Williams Stadium. The Blue Dragons won their eighth straight contest while the Broncbusters lost for the fifth consecutive time.

The unfortunate thing about this game was that Garden City was in firm command going into the final two innings. Sage McMinn and Raul Garcia got the Broncbusters through six, and Jake Gimbel pushed them out of trouble in the seventh. But that two-run lead dissipated in the eighth when Gimbel allowed a leadoff single to Cole Cosman; then watched helplessly as Lowe reached based on a dropped third strike that scored a run from third. Two batters later, Callahan sent a mile-hop popup on the right side of the infield that Ryan Muniz lost in the sun, allowing the tying run to come around. That was followed by an error on Nico Vite that gave Hutchinson their first lead of the game. They added three more runs, the last two coming on a passed ball and an error that gave the road team a four-run cushion.  

The shellshocked Broncbusters never recovered.

Lowe smashed an RBI double down the left-field line in the ninth, and Callahan smoke a run-scoring base hit to make it 9-3.

The last two innings spoiled a solid start from Garden City, which took an early 2-0 edge on Geoff Marlow's two-run extra base hit in the second. They scored their third in the fourth when Kyle Jameson sprinted home on a passed ball. But the Broncbuster bats went cold the rest of the way, producing just three hits over the final five innings.

Gimbel dropped to 0-2 on the bump this year, allowing five runs on two hits in 1.1 innings. McMinn, who started the game, yielded just one run on three hits, and struck out three.

Tyler Delong notched the win for Hutchinson, fanning five in three solid innings of relief.