Lady Buffs softball splits at Andover
Story courtesy Garden City High School Sports Information
Crushes KMC, falls to Campus
The two-day Andover Tournament for the Garden City Lady Buffs softball team provided head coach Trina Mai and her youthful squad one final opportunity to see how they fared against non-Western Athletic Conference before the regular season ended.
They passed the first test on Friday, crushing Wichita-Kapaun Mt. Carmel, 16-3, in a 5-inning, run-rule game ended by the 10-run margin. But the good vibes didn’t last long as the Buffs dropped a 6-5 heartbreaker to Haysville-Campus on Saturday morning.
The split left the Buffs with a 13-12 season record. They have one regular season game remaining, and that will be on Tuesday (May 12) at Hays to complete WAC play. It will be a single game at 5:30 p.m. following the 4 p.m. junior varsity contest.
“Friday was a fun game to coach and watch,” Mai said. “I can’t be disappointed in the way the girls completed and the growth that this team has demonstrated during the season. Every time someone struggled a little, they just kept competing and as a coach that’s all you can ask.”
The Buffs currently stand 8-3 in the WAC, having secured the runner-up position behind unbeaten Great Bend, which finished 12-0. Hays is in third place at 6-5.
Class 6A Regional tournaments will be played on May 18 (Monday) and one of four sites for the four highest seeded teams in the West.
CAMPUS 6, GARDEN CITY 5 (8 innings)
In the Saturday match-up with Campus, the Buffs opened the first with two runs. Yas Angeles led off with an inside-the-park home run then Josslynn George doubled and came home on Marisol Angeles’ RBI single to right.
Ellie Konrade then went down on strikes and Marisol Angeles was caught stealing for a double play. It was the first time she had been caught in 16 attempts this season. Elly Ortiz singled but was stranded when Anabelle Castillo also struckout.
Campus scored one run in its half of the first but the Buffs answered back with a single run in the third when Konrade homered for the sixth time this season with nobody on base. Campus used two singles and a double to score one run in the third, making it 3-2 Buffs.
The Lady Colts went ahead with a three-run fifth inning, using an error, a hit batter, a double and a sacrifice to go up 5-3.
The Buffs finally tied the game at 5-all with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh; Stella Villarreal doubled and advanced to third on an error by Campus’ left fielder. Yas Angeles walked and with two outs, Marisol Angeles was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Konrade then delivered a 2-run single to left, only to have Marisol Angeles getting called out at second on an overrun on the hit.
In the bottom of the eighth, Campus had a batter reach on a fielding error with one out; a single was followed by a flyout only to have Lily Clements single to center to score Piper Ray with the winning run.
The Lady Buffs out-hit the Colts, 11-9, but three errors resulted in Campus scoring three unearned runs. Konrade led the hitting attack by going 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs; Yas and Marisol Angeles each had an RBI that accounted for all the Garden City runs.
“You always want to win, but the girls showed a lot of competitiveness so there’s a lot of moments to feel good and excited about,” Mai said.
The one-run setback was the team’s fifth of the season.
GARDEN CITY 16, KAPAUN MT. CARMEL 3 (5 innings)
In Friday’s romp over Kapaun, the Lady Buffs scored multiple runs in each of the four at-bats. They plated three runs in both the first and second, two more in the third and eight in the fourth. Kapaun had scored its three runs in the top of the fourth, making it 8-3 before the explosion by the Buffs in their half of the fourth.
With the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, Konrade was hit by a pitch to score one run; a fielder’s choice by Castillo scored another run and Marisol Angeles came home on a catching error.
In the Buffs’ second, two singles, a double by Marisol Angeles and a Campus fielding error accounted for three more runs to make it 6-0. Two runs came home in the third on a walk, a hit batter and a Marisol 2-run single. Highlighting the Buffs’ 8-run outburst was senior Elly Ortiz’ grand slam home run.
Ortiz went 3-for-4 with 4 RBIs, Marisol Angeles and Konrade each had 3 RBIs. Of the Buffs’ 12 hits, six of them went for extra bases (3 doubles, 2 triples and a home run). Hamblin picked up her 11th win of the season by walking just one and striking out three in her five innings on the mound.
“It was one of those games where everything worked well for us,” Mai said. “We hit the ball hard, we fielded pretty well and got good pitching from Brylee.”
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Andover Tournament
Friday, May 8
GARDEN CITY 16, WICHITA-KAPAUN MT. CARMEL 3 (5 innings)
Kapaun Mt. Carmel…000…30…–…3…4…4
Garden City…332…8x…–…16…12…2
Pitching—KMC: Rocha and Bezdek; Garden City: Hamblin (W) and Peck. 2B—KMC: Bezdek, Glover, Ornelas; Garden City: Castillo, M. Angeles, Peck. 3B—Garden City: Castillo, Y. Angeles; HR—Ortiz.
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Saturday, May 9
CAMPUS 6, GARDEN CITY 5 (8 innings)
Garden City…201…000…20…–…5…11…3
Campus…101…030…01…–…6…9…2
Note: 2 outs when winning run scored in 8th inning.
Pitching—Garden City: Hamblin (L) and Peck; Campus: Matthews (W) and Caudillo. 2B—Garden City: George, Villarreal; Campus: Cooper 2. HR—Garden City: Konrade, Y. Angeles.