BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com

NEWTON – Newton’s crafty lefthander Griffin Huiatt solved the riddle of the Great Bend Bat Cats summer baseball team with a perfect mix of off-speed pitches.

The Highland Ranch, Colo. southpaw struck out eight batters to snap the Bat Cats’ 13-game winning streak 6-2 Sunday. Great Bend (15-2, 11-1 Sunflower) had swept a club record 11 consecutive league games.

Huiatt helped Mountain Vista High School to a pair of Colorado state baseball titles. He retired 16 consecutive batters without a hit until Raithen Malone drilled a sixth-inning home run.

Bat Cat Simon Larranaga ripped a ninth-inning homer off reliever Derek Shaver for Great Bend’s second hit of the night.

The Bat Cats struggled to find their hitting rhythm as they recorded 12 fly ball outs, 12 strikeouts and three groundball outs.

The Newton Rebels (8-5, 6-5 Sunflower) scored six runs, three without benefit of an RBI. Jack Bell and Conner Owens scored on Dash Albus wild pitches and Bailyn Sorensen scored on a seventh-inning balk.

Newton’s Easton Elliot scored on Sorensen’s first-inning groundout. Elliot’s 2-run second-inning homer drove home Bell for a 3-0 lead off Dash Albus (2-1). The final three runs scored on the wild pitches and a balk.

GB Bat Cats 000 001 001 – 2 2 1

Newton 102 011 10x – 6 8 0

Albus, Brett Allen (8) and Fahrlander. Huiatt, Mayberry (7), Shaver (9) and Young. W—Huiatt, 2-0. L—Albus, 2-1. HR—GB—Malone, Larranaga.