Saints Drop 2 to Garden City

LIBERAL, Kan. – Seward softball dropped two games to Garden City on Sunday at French Family Field, falling 10-1 in game one and 22-18 in game two.

The Saints (10-22, 2-12 KJCCC) have now lost eight consecutive games, including 12 straight in league play.

Seward hosts Fort Hays Tech Northwest on Wednesday in Liberal to close out the first round of KJCCC play. First pitch is at 1 p.m.

Game 1: Garden City 10, Seward 1 (6 Inn.)

Seward fell 10-1 in six innings in game one.

Garden City pitcher Skylah Breeze Joyce threw a complete game, allowing a lone run on four hits, striking out eight and walking four.

The Broncbusters hit three home runs in the game and outhit Seward 12-4 overall.

Taylor Harding, Kate Perez, Mya Van Der Mey and Amithys Perez each recorded hits for Seward. Starting pitcher Aaliyah Arredondo (L, 2-4) was tagged with the loss as she threw 3.2 innings allowing eight runs (six earned) on nine hits with no walks or strikeouts. Kaitlyn Gonzales threw the final 2.1 innings allowing no earned runs on three hits to go with a strikeout.

Game 2: Garden City 22, Seward 18

Game two saw the two teams combine for 40 runs, 38 hits and nine errors in a marathon game that lasted three and a half hours.

Garden City sent 15 batters to the plate in the top of the first, jumping out to a 10-0 lead. Seward instantly responded with seven runs in the bottom half, with both team batting through their lineup just one inning in.

Garden City plated four runs in the second to double up Seward, leading 14-7.

The Saints then started their climb as they held Garden City scoreless over the next three innings while plating nine runs from the second through fifth innings. A four-run fifth was highlighted by a bases-clearing triple off the bat of Jahlisa Klear to put Seward ahead 15-14, their first lead of the game. Emily Lane tacked on to the lead with an RBI single and the Saints led 16-14 heading into the sixth inning.

After a leadoff walk in the sixth from pitcher Grace Horne, the Garden City assistant coach argued a rule violation and informed the umpires they were protesting the game. After a 25-minute delay, the two teams both re-took the field with all of the Seward momentum essentially halted in its tracks. The Broncbusters went on to score four runs each in the sixth and seventh innings, taking a 22-16 lead. Seward got two runs back in the bottom of the seventh, but it was too little too late.

Seven Saints finished with multi-hit games paced by Klear who was 5-6 with five RBI and four runs scored. She had two triples and was a home run short of hitting for the cycle. The five hits was a career-high. Amithys Perez drove in four runs finishing 3-5 while Mya Van Der Mey was 3-6 with two RBI.