Bats Come Alive Late to Lead Lady Saints to Sweep of Garden

In a season that has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride, the Seward County Lady Saints strapped on their seatbelts once again on Saturday as they took on the Garden City Broncbusters on the road in Garden City. After a slow start to game one, the Lady Saints put up eight runs in the final two innings to come away with a 9-5 win before putting up a six spot in the final inning of game two to finish off the sweep of the Busters with a 16-8 victory. 

In front of their home crowd in Garden City, the Busters got off to a good start in game one, plating a pair of runs on back to back one out hits in the bottom half of the 1^st inning to grab a 2-0 lead on the Lady Saints. 

Seward put two on in their next at bats but couldn't score and the Busters pulled off a double steal to squeeze out a run in the bottom of the 2^nd to push their lead to 3-0. 

Garden City native Kennedy Brunson helped the Lady Saints get on the board for the first time in the top of the 3^rd, singling and then stealing second before a Brittany Corrales single drove her home to cut the Garden lead to 3-1. 

Seward starter Kelly Kearney settled down from there, holding the Busters without a run through the middle innings to keep it a 3-1 game through five. 

Still trailing 3-1 in the 6^th, the Lady Saints used a little bit of two out magic to get themselves back in the game. A single from Callie Silvers-Harnley pushed Hannah Clark home to make it a one run game and Brunson slapped a single through the hole to score her and tie the game at 3-3.  They weren't done yet, using a pair of Garden City errors to score one more, jumping ahead for the first time in the game at 4-3. 

Garden City answered in their half of the 6^th, this time using a Seward error to extend their inning before getting a two run home run to take the lead back 5-4.

Seward came out swinging in their final at bats, getting a two run double in the 7^th from Hannah Lopez to take the lead 6-5 before scoring another run on a wild pitch to push their lead to two at 7-5.  They kept on going as Jaidyn Mawhinney doubled home a run to make it 8-5 and finally a sacrifice fly from Corrales scored Brunson to stretch the Lady Saints lead to 9-5. 

The big Seward inning took the wind out of the Buster sails as Garden never threatened in their final trip to the plate, going down in order to finish the game and give the Lady Saints a 9-5 win. 

Seward outhit Garden 10-7 in the game while each side committed three errors.  Clark led the way for the Lady Saints, going 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles while Brunson and Corrales each had two hits, Brunson scoring three times and Corrales driving home two.  Kearney earned the win in the circle, shaking off a slow start to go the distance, allowing seven hits and five runs, just two earned to improve to 12-10 on the year. 

SEWARD COUNTY/GARDEN CITY GAME ONE BOX SCORE

In game two the Lady Saints jumped on the Busters right away, getting back to back jacks from Kristyna Garcia and Venice Batts to take an early 2-0 lead. 

The Lady Saints lead didn't last long though as the first seven Garden hitters of the 1^st inning reached base, turning into four runs before a double play mercifully ended the inning with Garden in front 4-2. 

Silvers-Harnley led off the Seward 2^nd with her first career home run to make it 4-3, but the Busters answered with two of their own in the bottom half to stretch their lead to 6-3. 

A bases loaded groundout for Seward in the 3^rd scored a run and a two out single from Taylor Kathler plated two more for the Lady Saints to tie the score at 6.

Seward was back at it in the 4^th, this time getting a pair of singles to start the inning and set the table for Batts who walloped her 10^th home run of the season for a three run shot to give the Lady Saints a 9-6 advantage. 

Garden City missed a huge chance to get back into the game, grounding into another double play to end their half of the 4^th and the Lady Saints took advantage of a Buster error in the top of the 5^th to push their lead to 10-6. 

The Busters got single runs in the 5^th and 6^th to cut the Seward lead to 10-8 as the game went to the final inning of regulation. 

Two walks and a single loaded the bases for Seward with nobody out in their half of the 7^th and a single up the middle from Clark brought two insurance runs home to make it 12-8.   Later in the inning Kathler drove home two more to make it 14-8 and Seward added two more in the frame to blow their lead open to 16-8 at innings end. 

Into the game in relief, Kearney finished the Busters off with a 1-2-3 inning in the 7^th, wrapping up a 16-8 win for the Lady Saints to complete the sweep. 

The game featured 33 hits, 18 for Seward and 15 for the Busters.  All nine Seward starters had hits in the win while the middle of the lineup was deadly.  Garcia had three hits and scored four runs, Batts cranked two home runs and finished with four RBI's, while Clark was two for three with two RBI's, and Kathler smacked three hits and drove home a career best four.  Alexis Cuellar picked up her first career win in the circle, going five innings in relief, allowing 13 hits, but just four runs to improve to 1-4 on the year.  Kearney came in to finish off the final inning and two-thirds, to earn her first career save. 

SEWARD COUNTY/GARDEN CITY GAME TWO BOX SCORE

Seward improves to 22-26 on the year with the doubleheader sweep, pushing their Jayhawk West record to 5-11.  Garden City's miserable 2016 continues as they fall to 8-32 and remain winless at 0-18 in conference action. 

The Lady Saints next action will come Wednesday at home in Liberal when they host the Pratt Beavers for the first of their two meetings this season in a 2:00 start.