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The clincher: Busters win outright conference title by sweeping Cloud
Published 4/27/2009 in Sports : GCCC
By BRETT MARSHALL
bmarshall@gctelegram.com
Heading into the four-game weekend series with Cloud County that would determine the seedings for the upcoming Region 6 playoffs, Garden City Broncbusters baseball coach Chris Finnegan knew one thing was for sure.
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Brad Nading/Telegram - Garden City Community College's Cass Via touches the plate with his hand as he slides in home safely from second base Saturday against Cloud County on a single by teammate C.J. Gillman at Williams Stadium.
If the Busters took care of business and didn't rely on Hutchinson or Colby to aid in their bid to win the Western Division of the Jayhawk Conference, then all would be well.
When the final out was recorded Sunday afternoon at Williams Stadium against Cloud County, the Broncbusters were on the top side of a narrow 4-3 win, the Jayhawk Conference title was back in Garden City for the first time since they shared it in 2005 with Hutchinson, Seward County and Butler County.
More impressive, though, is that it is the Busters' first outright Western Division title since 1989. With the weekend sweep Garden City (41-15) tied the team's season-win totals in 2000 and 2005. The Busters best season was 1982 when they won 54 games. Their 22-10 conference record was more than their entire season total of a year ago when they finished eighth in the conference race.
The final win of the series capped a four-game sweep of the Thunderbirds and left the Busters in a position where neither Hutchinson or Colby can catch them. That came as a result of a doubleheader split on Saturday between the two. Their Sunday twinbill was rained out and is scheduled for today.
"It's an amazing feeling," Kyle Oestereicher, Sunday's second game winner said of the division title. "We've played well all year, and we came out and played strong defense, got the bats going in the first game and we just played well enough in the second game to get the win."
Oestereicher (7-1) went six innings in the nightcap, and Heath Wyatt came in to pitch the seventh, yielding an unearned run before finishing with his school-record 13th save.
Garden City jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on an RBI single to right by Erik Mattingly that scored M.J. Sartin in the second game. Cloud County came back in its half of the third to tied it when the Thunderbirds got a single, a sacrifice bunt and an RBI single by Dale Steele.
The Busters' bats, though, came to life in the third, scoring three runs, the biggest one being a two-out single by Ben Warner that drove in the two runs.
"I was just looking for something to drive and I got a fastball on the inside middle of the plate and just went with it," Warner said. "It feels really good to get that kind of hit in a big game."
Cloud did make a run in the late innings, scoring single tallies in both the sixth and seventh.
In the opener, the Busters got a pair of runs in the bottom of the third to open up an early lead when Gillman smashed an 0-1 fastball off the scoreboard facing in left centerfield.
In its half of the fourth, Garden City sent 15 runners to bat, 11 of whom scored, and they did it on eight hits and were aided by one error.
The Busters will have to await the outcome of the Eastern Division, but Kansas City Communtiy College could be the Busters Region 6 first round opponent. KCK completed its Jayhawk slate and were one game behind Coffeyville, a team they lost three of four to during the regular season.
Region 6 playoffs will start Saturday at Williams Stadium, set to begin at 1 p.m., for a best of three series. Saturday will be a doubleheader with a third game, if necessary, scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Should Garden City win, the Busters will head to Wichita for the final rounds of the Region 6 championship.
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Sunday
Game 1
Garden City 13, Cloud Co. 0
Cloud Co. 000 00 - 0 2 2
Garden City 002 (11) x - 13 12 0
CC - Williams, Roberts (4), Robbins (4) and Palmer; GCCC - Mattingly and Soulia. W - Mattingly (6-2), L - Williams.
2B - CC (McKay), GCCC (Via 2). HR - GCCC (Gillman).
Game 2
Garden City 4, Cloud Co. 3
Cloud Co. 001 001 1 - 3 8 5
Garden City 013 000 x - 4 6 2
CC - Beal, McDiffett (3) and Cody, Palmer (4), GCCC - Oestreicher, Wyatt (7) and Gillman.
2B - CC (Matthews, Cody, Calvin), GCCC (Soulia).
Saturday
Game 1
Garden City 11, Cloud Co. 2
Cloud Co. 010 010 0 - 2 3 1
Garden City 102 305 x - 11 15 1
CC - Adkisson, Hahn (6) and Palmer, GCCC - Daugherty and Soulia. W - Daugherty (4-3), L - Adkisson.
2B - CC (Steele), GCCC - Schramm, Soulia, Sartin, Mattingly, Kordsmeier.
Game 2
Garden City 5, Cloud Co. 2
Cloud Co. 000 001 1 - 2 3 6
Garden City 010 400 x - 5 7 1
CC - Lewis and Palmer, GCCC - Cifuentes, Melendez (7) and Soulia. W - Cifuentes (3-0), L - Lewis. 2B - GCCC (Schramm, Kordsmeier).
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