Forgettable Day For Saints at Garden City

If the Seward County Saints could summon Will Smith and his Neuralyzer from Men in Black after Thursday's games at Garden City, they certainly would have, as Seward suffered a 4-2 walk off loss in game one of the doubleheader and were then handed their worst loss in program history in game two in a 25-2 thumping to drop all the way back to 10-20 in Jayhawk West Conference play this season. 

Back to back 1^st inning doubles for Garden City put the Busters on the board and gave the home team an early 1-0 advantage. 

It remained a 1-0 game to the 4^th when Seward cracked the scoreboard for the first time, using a two out Garden error and an RBI single behind that from Montana Newell to give themselves a 2-1 lead. 

After two quick outs for the Saints in the bottom of the 4^th, the Busters mounted a rally, getting two straight singles and then a wild pitch and a passed ball to push the tying run across to knot things at 2. 

The Saints put two on with one out in the 5^th for the middle of their lineup, but back to back pop outs on the infield killed their chances to retake the lead.  In the 6^th they got a leadoff single from Jacob Nielsen and moved him to second on a sacrifice bunt, but two groundouts ended the frame with the score still tied at two. 

Garden threatened in the 6^th, loading the bases without hitting the ball out of the infield, but Saints starter Jared Biddy worked out of the mess and kept the score knotted at two to the 7^th. 

The Saints got their leadoff man on again in the 7^th as Law Greiner was hit by a pitch, but a failed sacrifice attempt, a fly out, and a strikeout again forced Seward to settle for a goose egg in the inning. 

Garden City worked a leadoff walk of their own to begin the bottom of the 7^th and after a groundout, the Busters used the breeze blowing out to left for a deep two run home run, effectively ending the game in a 4-2 Garden City walk off win. 

The Saints actually outhit the Busters 8-7 in the contest, but couldn't get the big hit as Newell finished with the only hit with a runner in scoring position in the contest.  Biddy took the loss, falling to 4-6 on the year as he allowed seven hits and four runs, three earned, while striking out eight in the complete game effort. 

SEWARD COUNTY/GARDEN CITY GAME ONE BOX SCORE

In game two it was again Garden jumping out to an early lead as the Busters got a two run home run in the bottom of the 2^nd to go ahead 2-0. 

The Saints answered though, using their patience to score a pair of runs in the top half of the 3^rd on a bases loaded walk and a double play ball to even the score at 2-2. 

A Seward error allowed the Busters to get going again in their half of the 3^rd as Garden got a one out double and a two run single behind that to retake the lead at 5-2. 

All heck broke loose for the Saints in the Garden half of the 4^th.  After getting a strikeout to start the inning, the Saints would watch as six straight Busters reached base, pushing across three more runs to make it 8-2.  After finally recording the second out of the inning, Garden just stood at the plate and let Saints pitching walk the next four batters, three of them with the bases loaded to make it 11-2 before putting the exclamation point on the inning with a grand slam to stretch their lead to 15-2. 

It was more of the same in the 5^th as an RBI single for the Busters made it a 16-2 game and Garden City's second grand slam in as many innings gave them a 20-2 lead. 

Things continued to snowball for Seward in the 6^th as Garden City continued to add to their already gigantic lead.  A solo home run followed by three consecutive two out hits put five more on the board for the home team to make it a 25-2 game after six. 

The Saints went down in order in the 7^th and mercifully the game finally came to an end with the run rule in a 25-2 victory for the Busters which marked the worst loss in Seward County Baseball history. 

Garden City finished with more home runs in the game, four, than the Saints did hits, three.  The Busters pounded out 20 hits against Seward pitching while the Saints made five errors on the defensive end.  Errett Edwards had one of the Saints three hits and walked twice to reach base in three of his four at bats.  Ethan Earhart took the loss on the mound for Seward, allowing six hits and five runs in 2 1/3 innings to fall to 3-5 on the year.  Three Seward relievers combined to allow 20 runs in just 3 2/3 innings of work out of the bullpen. 

SEWARD COUNTY/GARDEN CITY GAME TWO BOX SCORE

The Saints tailspin at the end of the regular season continues as they fall to 17-34 overall and 10-20 in Jayhawk West play where they now sit in the 8^th and final playoff spot in the standings.  Garden City improves to 31-22 overall and 16-14 in league play where they keep their hopes alive for a possible home playoff series in next week's Region VI Tournament.

The Saints and Busters will wrap their series up Friday afternoon at Williams Stadium with first pitch scheduled for 1:00.