Lopes Continue Early Success in Garden City
The LCC Baseball team is off to a very hot start to their 2017 season. After the sweep of Luna Community College (Las Vegas, NM), the Lopes found themselves playing their first road game of the season with a 10-1 record. Garden City had been undefeated through the first seven ballgames at home, but the confident LCC squad wanted to change that. This game was another solo nine-inning game.
The Lopes have had hot bats since opening weekend earlier this month, and have really turned it up a notch as of late. The game started at 1:00 pm, and it didn't take long before the flaming hot Lopes hit the scoreboard. On the first pitch of the game, Sam Scarborough, hitting in the lead-off spot for the first time all season, sent a missile over the left fielder's head, which bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double. Jack Stamper was hit by a pitch the next at bat. Two batters later Kennedy Badgett singled to score Scarborough and give the Lopes an early lead. Stamper would later score on a passed ball.
A quick bottom of the first led to more runs for the Lopes in the second. Stone Romero singled to left field, and Scarborough walked to add more pressure to the Broncbusters' defense. After two fly-outs, and no runs pushed across yet, Badgett doubled to the right-field gap to score Scarborough. Ayden Karraker drew a walk, and both runners moved up on a wild pitch. This set up a Scott Savage single that scored both Badgett and Karraker to give LCC a 6-0 lead.
LCC decided to pitch a majority of their staff on the day, giving way to eight different pitchers getting in to work. Ryan Hoff would earn his first win of his collegiate career. The Lopes only allowed one run to score in the sixth inning. The Lopes were held in check after the second inning, only scoring one more run in the eighth inning.
Lamar Community College will be taking the field again on Saturday against another Kansas college, Colby Community College. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:00 pm Saturday afternoon for a non-conference double-header. The Lopes are also scheduled to travel to Colby on Sunday for another double-header, scheduled for 12:00 pm CST.