WICHITA, Kan. - A three-run top of the seventh to tie the game at five would not be enough for the Dodge City Community College baseball team as the Conquistadors would fall by a final score of 7-5 to Kansas City Kansas Community College in an elimination game of the NJCAA Region VI Central District Tournament at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita, KS on Saturday, May 13th. 

DC3 ends their season at 38-19-1 overall while the Blue Devils move on to play another elimination game tomorrow morning with a record of 41-20. 

Dodge City would lead in the early going as the designated road team, which was decided last night via a coin-flip as home and road teams for all games in the tournament are decided with a coin flip. Cade Engle would get things off the right way with a lead off single to start the game before moving over to second on a ground out by Jake Pederson to put a runner on second with two outs. Talon Schaller would then draw the first walk of the afternoon to allow for Dauson Tate to hit a ground-rule double over the wall in left center field to make the score 1-0 just half an inning into the game. 

Starting pitcher Cole Brandon managed to work around a lead off single by KCKCC with a 4-6-3 double play and fly out to end the inning and keep the score 1-0 in favor of the Conquistadors. 

Isaak Snyder would collect one of his two walks in the game to start of the top of the second and move to second base on a wild pitch to allow for Robert Perea to move him to third on a groundout to second base. Cole Bergdall then laid down a suicide squeeze that would be misplayed by the KCKCC first baseman to allow everyone to be safe and make the score 2-0 in favor of DC3. 

The Blue Devils would get a run back in the bottom of the third and take their first lead of the game with a two-run bottom of the fourth to lead 3-2 after four innings of play after collecting three hits and taking advantage of a Dodge City error in the fourth. 

Things would stand pat until the bottom of the sixth when Kansas City would add two additional runs on three hits to push their lead out to 5-2 and leave DC3 with just nine outs to work with. 

A big seventh-inning rally saw the Conquistadors send nine batters to the plate and score three-runs as Schaller would deliver with a big two-RBI single to pull Dodge City within one at 5-4 before a Gavin Gifford pinch-hit RBI groundout would knot the game at five all. 

KCKCC would threaten in the bottom of the seventh by loading the bases with one out when the Conquistadors would turn to reliever Jonny Chavez, who would escape the inning after getting behind on his first batter with a 3-1 count to fight back with a strikeout and ground out to leave the bases full. 

Dodge City would go down in order in the top of the eighth before the Blue Devils would break through with four straight hits to plate two runs and take a 7-5 lead into the ninth with DC3 down to their final three outs of the season. 

Schaller would collect his second hit of the game to bring the game-tying run up to bat, but Blue Devil reliever Julian Rivera Proenz would slam the door shut and end the Conquistadors season. 

Chavez (4-1) would take the loss after throwing just two thirds of an inning and allowing two runs on three hits and striking out one on 20 pitches.

Schaller and Tate would collect two hits each in the game to lead DC3 with each team committing two errors in the game. Bergdall would swipe two bags in the game with the Blue Devils out hitting DC3 by a final tally of 12-8. 

Record notes: Cade Engle finishes with 64 runs scored on the year, finishing just two short of the single-season record set by Johnny Balsamo in 2015. Engle also finishes with 74 hits on the year, fifth most in single-season.

Talon Schaller had previously set the single-season home run record this season and extended the record to 17 with his home run today. With 18 career home runs, Schaller is tied for third-most in a career at DC3 with Leno Ramirez (2014-15) and Jason Berry (1998-99). 

Schaller also tied the single-season RBI record of 75, previously set by Cody Voelker in 2012. With 87 career RBI, Schaller is seventh all-time at DC3. 

Cole Brandon has 70 strikeouts this season, third-most in a single season.  

Brandon has 113 strikeouts in his career, third-most in DC3 history behind only Lucas Crabb (121, 2014-15) and Russell Mithlo (122, 2014-15).