For the fourth time in five games, the Garden City Broncbusters scored double-digit runs, the latest coming in a 16-9 rout of visiting McCook, Neb., on Wednesday evening at Williams Stadium.
The Busters are hitting .359 as a team, with a combined .489 on-base percentage, with three home runs and 11 doubles. And the hot streak to begin the season has been led by transfer first baseman Robbie Young, and returner Clint Allen, who both are hitting above .500 and collected multiple hits Wednesday, as the Busters (3-2) racked up 19 combined in the nine-inning victory.
“I think we’re swinging it well right now,” GCCC head coach Chris Finnegan said. “I think we’ve done a good job of taking advantage of the practice time we have with the hitters.”
Allen, hitting leadoff and playing center field Wednesday, went a perfect 5 for 5, including a home run, while plating four RBIs and scoring four times.
Young, who transferred to GCCC at semester last season, before red-shirting for the spring schedule, was 3 for 5, with a pair of doubles, two runs and an RBI. He already has nine extra-base hits this season, recording an otherworldly 1.316 slugging percentage.
“If he would have played second semester (in 2017), it would have limited where he would have been able to go,” Finnegan said of Young, who previously played at Maryville (Tenn.) College. “He came in, red-shirted, worked hard, and the ability has always been there. He’s showing people what he’s capable of doing.”
Young’s double that plated Allen in the first inning gave the Busters an early lead, but McCook scored three runs off Buster starter Jacob Garza, knocking him out after just three frames. And the Indians held a 5-2 lead entering the bottom of the fourth, after taking advantage of consecutive errors by the Busters to score two unearned runs.
But Allen sparked a rally — that eventually tied the game — with an RBI single, and then coming around to score on an error. Then, the Busters put seven runs on the board in the fifth inning, taking full control of the game. Allen hit a home run in that frame, and Ty Barclay got things started with a two-run double.
Ryan Nason ended up with the win for the Busters, despite giving up three runs across 1 1/3 relief innings. AJ Stephens, Scott Waterman and Nick Iossi closed out the final 3 2/3 innings for the Busters, giving up just one unearned run.
“Today wasn’t great defensively,” Finnegan said. “It wasn’t great starting pitching, but our bullpen did a good job, and I thought we swung it well.”
The Busters host Western Nebraska for a four-game set this weekend, with Saturday’s doubleheader set to begin at 1 p.m.