CONCORIDA, Kan. - The Dodge City Community College baseball ran their current win streak to seven games with a pair of 5-1 and 14-11 victories over host Cloud County Community College at Lee Doyen Field in Concorida, Kansas on Sunday, March 5th. 

DC3 is now 10-4 overall and 4-0 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community college Conference while the Thunderbirds dropped all four games of the weekend series to fall to 8-10 overall and 0-4 in the KJCCC. 

Efficient pitching would  carry the load for the Conquistadors in game one as starting pitcher Joe Buckendorf would throw six innings to pick up the win while giving up just one run on four hits and retiring nine of the last 10 batters he faced. Dodge City would get on the board in the top of the first by using a Brayden Cook and Jake Pederson one-out singles to allow for Richard Fullerton to drive in Cook on a sacrifice fly. A 1-2-3 bottom of the first would allow for DC3 to threaten in the top of the second before ending the inning on the base path as Buckendorf would keep CCCC scoreless. Cook would score the second run of the game in the top of the third on a Pederson RBI double to push DC3's lead to 2-0 as Cloud County would respond with a run of their own thanks in part to a walk, bunt single, and wild pitch to push a run across. Both teams would be retired in order in the fourth inning. Dodge City would plate two runs in the top of the fifth, using one hit and two T'Bird errors to take a 4-1 lead as the Conquistadors would be in full control. With Cloud County going down in order in their half of the fifth, DC3 would get a chance to pad their lead in the top of the sixth but leave two runners on base with the inning ending on consecutive ground outs. Dauson Tate would add an insurance run for DC3 in the top of the seventh with a one out solo home run to left field as Dalton Harvey would pitch the bottom of the seventh and hold Cloud County scoreless while not allowing a hit. 

Dodge City's top of the order would manage to do the bulk of the offensive damage in game one, with Cade Engle along with Cook and Pederson would collect six of DC3's 11 hits and drive and score four of the five runs. Trevor Close would also record two-hits at the plate, going two-for-three to flip the lineup over. 

A back-and-forth affair would be seen in game two, with a total of four lead changes over the first five innings of play would see 25 total runs scored. Following a Fullerton two-out RBI double in the top of the first to give the Conquistadors a 1-0 lead, Cloud County would take their first lead of the game on two consecutive RBI singles in the bottom of the first to hold a 2-1 lead after one. Talon Schaller would tie the game at two in the top of the second with a solo home run before a Robert Perea walk followed by a Close double would allow Engle to drive in Perea on a sacrifice fly and allow DC3 to re-take the lead at 3-2. Errors by Dodge City on back-to-back plays in the bottom of the second would allow CCCC to tie the game at three apiece heading to the third where the Conquistadors would be set down in order. Tauren Langley would break the deadlock in the bottom of the third with a leadoff solo home run to give the T'Birds a 4-3 lead before Cole Brandon would shut down CCCC the rest of the inning. DC3 would once again tie the game in the top of the fourth on a Perea RBI single to drive in Schaller as Cloud County would take advantage of a Dodge City error in the bottom half of the inning to push across two runs and take a 6-4 lead.

The Conquistadors would take the lead for good in the top of the fifth after the first three DC3 batters would reach base safely and Gavin Gifford would hit a one-out two-RBI single to knock starting pitcher David Johns out of the game. Schaller would hit his second home run of the game to bring home Gifford and put the score at 9-6 in favor of DC3 .Cloud County would get single runs pushed across in the fifth and sixth innings with Dodge City sandwiching a run in the middle to hold a 10-8 lead heading to the final three innings of action. Gifford would pad the Conquistador lead in the top of the seventh with a two-run homer to center field as once again the Thunderbirds would answer the DC3 scoring output. The two-run lead would get pushed back out to four runs for Dodge City in the top of the eighth as Perea would bring home Fullerton and Tate with a two-out bases loaded single. Cloud County would go 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth before the Conquistadors would see the same fate as CCCC would see their last chance to send the game to extra innings end with runners on second and third in the ninth. 

Brandon would take the decision by throwing four innings and giving up six runs on five hits while striking out five before making way for J.T. Mossberg. Mossberg (1.2 innings), Jeremy Hidalgo (2.2 innings), Hayden Davey (0.1 innings) and Harvey (0.1 innings) would combine to close out the game with Harvey picking up his third save of the season. Schaller and Gifford would combine for all three DC3 home runs in the game while going six-for-nine at the plate and driving in six runs. Fullerton would collect three hits while collecting two RBI's and scoring twice. 

A mid-week clash with the Tabor College JV team will be Dodge City's next opportunity to continue their win streak, with first pitch of a two-game doubleheader set for 1 p.m. in Hillsboro, KS.