Seward Splits With Busters

The Seward County Lady Saints certainly weren't at their best Wednesday afternoon as they took on Garden City in their 2014 Jayhawk West home finale, but they were good enough for a split, dropping game one to the Lady Busters 8-5 before squeezing out a 4-3 win in game two to split the doubleheader. 

Seward jumped in front early on in game one as a one out double by Pokey Ewell and a misplayed fly ball by the Busters gave the Lady Saints a 1-0 lead after 1. 

Garden tied the game one inning later though as an outfield error by Seward allowed the equalizer to score to knot the game at 1-1. 

The Busters were right back at it in the 3^rd as they got a one out walk and cashed that run in on a two out single and later on in the inning got a towering two run home run to take a 4-1 lead. 

The third error of the game on Garden City allowed Seward to push their second run across in the 3^rd , but a caught stealing in the inning cost them another tally as the Lady Saints remained behind 4-2 after 3. 

Seward drew to within one in the 4^th as the Busters defense continued to let them down with another error to make it a 4-3 game. 

The Lady Saints didn't stay close for long though as Garden blew the game open in the 5^th, scoring four times on four hits to stretch their advantage to 8-3. 

A leadoff double by Becky Allen netted the Lady Saints a run later on in the 5^th to make it 8-4, but that is where the score remained into Seward's final at bats where they got a two out solo home run from Danielle Orr, but nothing more as they fell in game one to Garden City 8-5. 

There were 11 hits aside for the two teams while Garden City committed 4 errors in the contest and Seward kicked it 3 times.  Ewell and Tiffanie Bolanos each had 2 hits for Seward in the loss while Orr drove in 2 for the Lady Saints.  Brittany Hopkins was hit hard in the loss, allowing a season high 11 hits and 8 runs in 7 innings of work.  She walked 4 and did not strike out a Garden City batter as she falls to 17-5 on the year. 

SEWARD COUNTY/GARDEN CITY GAME ONE BOX SCORE

The Lady Saints again got on the board early in game two of the twinbill as Ewell poked an RBI single and Orr did the same later in the inning to put Seward up 2-0 in the 1^st. 

It remained a 2-0 game in favor of Seward into the 4^th as Lady Saint starter Katelyn Craker quieted the Garden City bats and Buster starter Alex Barleen settled in after a rough 1^st. 

Garden finally broke through against Craker in the 4^th with a two out single to push a run across to cut the Lady Saints lead in half to 2-1. 

A pair of walks to start the Seward 4^th proved beneficial for the Lady Saints as Ewell remained hot with a double to the gap to score another run to make it 3-1 Lady Saints. 

Garden City continued to battle though and a one out double in the top half of the 5^th plated two for the Busters to tie the game at 3. 

It was nothing going for either team in their next at bats and the game quickly went to the bottom of the 6^th tied at 3. 

Felisha Vogelaar led off the Seward 6^th with a big double and two batters later it was the right woman at the plate as Ewell smashed another double to score her from second to put the Lady Saints in front 4-3. 

Craker did the rest as she worked around a leadoff walk in the 7^th, stranding the Buster runner just 60 feet from home with a strikeout to end the contest to give the Lady Saints a 4-3 win. 

It was again Ewell and Orr pacing the Seward offense as Ewell was 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles and 3 RBI's while Orr finished a perfect 3 for 3 for the Lady Saints.  Craker went the distance to earn her league leading 18^th win of the season, allowing just 5 hits and 3 runs while striking out 8. 

SEWARD COUNTY/GARDEN CITY GAME TWO BOX SCORE

Seward moves to 39-11 overall and 8-4 in Jayhawk West play with the split while Garden goes to 19-23 and 7-7 in league action. 

Next up for the Lady Saints is their final home game of the 2014 season on Friday when they host the Pratt Lady Beavers in a 1:00 doubleheader at Lady Saints Field.