By MARSHALL MOORE

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mmoore@gctelegram.com

The weather finally permitted Garden City Community College to play a baseball game.

Unfortunately for the Broncbusters, it didn't turn out to be the best of occasions, either.

In its first action since March 16, Garden City fell to Lamar (Colo.) 7-5 on Tuesday afternoon in a nine-inning matchup. The Broncbusters committed four errors, and went hitless until Dan Oracion singled in the bottom of the sixth.

"We're not a very good offensive team," Garden City coach Chris Finnegan said. "You have to get back-to-back hits to get going. When we do that, we're very successful in those innings. When we don't -- well, we're not."

Lamar (15-15) struck first after catcher Daniel Neumann hammered an RBI single through the gap in the top of the fourth, repeating the feat in the fifth to give the 'Lopes a 2-0 lead. In the top of the sixth, shortstop Dave Kapan hit a single off of Heath Wyatt and advanced to third on an error by Luke Fisher in right field to drive in Adam Jones and give Lamar a 3-0 advantage. Cooke added another RBI single in the sixth to pad the lead.

The Broncbusters (13-13) used nine pitchers, rotating them in at the beginning of each inning. Bryce Butt got the start for Garden City, but Hayden Daugherty, Nate Van Bibber, Ryan Merrell, Tyler Fenton, Wyatt, Kyle Oestereicher, Mike Sutton and Oracion all made appearances on the mound. Merrell received the loss for Garden City, falling to 1-1 on the year.

"We needed guys with innings, and we don't play until this weekend," said Finnegan. "It was a good opportunity to not just get bullpen work, but to get live work."

Sutton, who made his first appearance on the mound in the eighth, struck out one batter and retired the other two in just seven pitches.

"I was pretty nervous," said Sutton, a redshirt freshman. "My change up wasn't working too well in the bullpen, but I thought my fastball was moving so I relied a lot on that. Still, I was nervous."

Garden City rallied in the sixth after an RBI single by Christian Lucero and a sacrifice bunt by Ben Warner, but fell behind again after allowing three runs in the top of the ninth. The Broncbusters responded with three runs on the heels of a two RBI single by Dusty Noraker and another run driven-in by Nate Reddig, but fell short of the comeback after Cass Via struck out looking to end the game.

"There were a lot of guys struggling a bit, that were tired or hurting and struggling at the plate," Sutton said. "We struggled today, I know, but we'll pick it up. I know we will."

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Lamar 000 112 003 -- 7 10 0

Garden City 000 002 003 -- 5 9 4

WP -- Perry LP -- Merrell (1-1). 2B -- Claus, Lamar; Neumann, Lamar. 3B -- Kaplan, Lamar.