Broncbusters take down No. 14 Grizzlies

Garden City, KS-Talk about making history. 

Maysen Kurene-Iwikau belted two home runs, Yina Ballesta Vargas struck out seven, and Garden City knocked off 14^th-ranked Butler, 11-7 Thursday afternoon at Tangeman Sports Complex. 

The Broncbusters, which won their fifth straight to move to 14-9 overall and 6-3 in conference, beat the Grizzlies for the first time since May 3, 2015-a 4-3 victory over the Grizzlies in the Region VI semifinals. It also snapped a 30-game losing streak in the series. 

Minus a couple of hiccups, Vargas was solid again, posting her third straight victory in the circle. She allowed seven runs on 10 hits, working in and out of trouble for much of the game. She gave up a two-out RBI single in the first and a three-run homer to Kim Yepez in the third. She allowed a couple of singles after that before Yepez homered again in the seventh. 

Meantime the Broncbuster offense provided plenty of insurance. Kurene-Iwikau smashed a line-drive, two-run homer over the left-field fence in the first that gave Garden City the lead for good. She struck again an inning later when she clubbed a two-out, two-run single past a diving Emillee Stofferahn at short. 

The Broncbusters scratched a run across in the third and fourth innings before Kurene-Iwikau put the finishing touches on this one with a three-run bomb in the sixth. 

Kurene-Iwikau finished 3-for-4 with seven RBI and two runs scored for Garden City, which now sits in fourth place in the conference standings (two back of Butler in the loss column). Keiry Abreue collected two hits and scored twice, and Garza was 2-for-3 with an RBI. 

Butler starter, Chloe Odle was chased after a 1/3 of an inning, allowing two runs on two hits.