Thad Weber and the Blue Dragons suffered their first postseason loss of 2005 after Garden City defeated HCC 9-4 in the Region VI Tournament winner's bracket final on May 15, 2005.

Region Tournament Winner's Bracket Final
Garden City 9, Hutchinson 4
May 15, 2005 - Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, Wichita

GARDEN CITY TOPS
BLUE DRAGONS IN
WINNER’S BRACKET FINAL

CLICK FOR BOXSCORE

WICHITA - Garden City pitcher Eric Dickerhoff stymied the Hutchinson Community College baseball team for eight innings on Sunday, May 15 in the Region VI Tournament's winner’s bracket final at Lawrence Dumont Stadium. HCC broke through for a couple of runs in the ninth, but it was too little, too late as Garden City defeated the Blue Dragons 9-4.

Hutchinson (34-20) fell to the loser’s bracket final where it will meet Cowley College the right to play Garden City in the championship game. HCC will have to defeat Cowley and Garden City twice over the next two days to advance to its first NJCAA World Series in program history.

Hutchinson started the game with a single by Andy Dirks but then followed with a double play ball by Andrew Prignitz. Noah Krol followed with a triple but failed to score before the inning and threat was over.

Dragon hits seemed to go right at Garden City defenders, with Prignitz especially being victimized. Prignitz lined a hard hit ball up the middle that was snagged by the second baseman in his second at-bat and in his third at-bat hit a screamer that Garden first baseman Andy Preston snagged and completed the out at first.

Todd Schonhoff sent several fly balls to the deep outfield, only to see them caught by the Broncbuster outfielders.

“We did hit a couple balls but you’ve got to hit it a long way to get it out of here,” HCC head coach Kyle Crookes said. “Schonhoff hit a couple balls but Curtis ran a few balls down. You can’t hit the ball in the air here if you’re us unless it’s going over the wall. We've got to hit more balls on the ground and do a better job of executing.”

Garden City, however, was able to find the holes the Dragons could not. After scoring one run in the bottom of the first, the Broncbusters tagged Hutchinson starter Danny Calvert for four runs in the third - two coming on a bases loaded double by Preston.

Hutchinson scored its first run in the top of the fifth after a sacrifice fly by Brandon Doherty scored Torey Williams from third. In the inning, Williams was the lone baserunner and the Dragons did not get a hit.

Garden scored three more runs in the seventh inning after a throwing error by Blue Dragon reliever Jon Hansen on a sacrifice bunt allowed two to score and the bunter, Luke Dreiling to advance all the way to third.

Hutchinson entered the ninth trailing 9-2 and the two runs the Blue Dragons pushed across in the bottom half were not enough.  

“Dickerhoff did a great job,” Crookes said of Garden City’s pitcher. “I don't know how many pitches he threw, but he threw his butt off. As high as his pitch count was I don't know how many times we walked – it wasn't enough to put a whole lot of pressure on the bases.”

Garden City out-hit the Blue Dragons 12-5. Dirks and Krol had two hits each to lead the Dragons.

Danny Calvert took the loss after giving up eight hits and five earned runs in three innings. Jon Hansen worked the final five innings.