Butler competes two-game sweep

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-Third-ranked Butler had not lost a conference game all season heading into the Monday's series finale. There's a reason for that.

Their pitching was solid again, getting another combined five-hit masterpiece from Maddie Redmand and Kelcie Kippes, Emily Adler knocked in three runs, and the Grizzlies beat Garden City 13-2 in a run-rule victory Monday afternoon at Tangeman Sports Complex.

"We made way too many mistakes, and against a good team like that, they're going to capitalize," Head Coach Amy Schmeckpeper said.

The Broncbusters committed five errors in the opener and three more in game two. And their pitching was shaky for a second straight contest with Lacey Kearsley surrendering 12 hits while tossing 143 pitches. She yielded three runs in the first and two more in the second when Adler clubbed a two-run single to center to make it 5-0. The Broncbusters finally broke through with two runs in their half, but they could never sustain any offensive juice.

In the third, the Grizzlies added to their lead on Mariah Wheeler's RBI single, which was followed by Elycia Johnson's error at third that allowed a run to score. Another miscue by Monet Martinez in right later in the inning and an Adler single through the middle gave Butler a 10-2 advantage.

"I think it's hard because our girls have not seen pitching like that," Schmeckpeper explained. "We definitely took a hit with our confidence in the box."

That five-run third was followed up with two more in the fourth, followed by Alex Olson's pinch-hit RBI single in the fifth that gave Butler a commanding 13-2 edge.

The Broncbusters went down in order in the bottom half.

"I thought we did much better in the second game," Schmeckpeper said. "But our defense didn't help us out at all."

Butler outslugged the Broncbusters 12-5 and won the game despite committing four errors themselves. Adler finished 2-for-3 at the plate, and Redman struck out a pair.

Arianna Griego went 2-for-2 with a run scored for Garden City, which despite the loss, still holds a one-game lead over Colby for first place in the Jayhawk West