The bats were cooking early as the Dodge City softball team hit the road on Tuesday to open their season and brought home a pair of wins over Lamar 14-6 in six innings and 13-6.
Conquistadors scored 27 runs on 29 hits in the two games to open the 2022 season with a 2-0 record.
Game 1 – Conqs won 14-6 (six innings)
It didn't take long for the Conqs offense to put some runs on the board as they plated five in top of the first against the Lopes of Lamar. After a leadoff walk by
Melanie Castro, she would come around to score on an RBI single by
Makayla Garcia and
Destiny Saldivar would add an RBI single in the inning. Conqs capitalized on two walks, three hit batters, and two hits to score the five runs in the first. Conqs added another run in the second, two in the third, and one in the fourth, while Lamar tallied a pair of runs in the second, one in the fourth, and three in the fifth. The Conqs shut them down in the sixth scoring five runs in capitalizing on three walks, a hit by pitch, and three singles back-to-back in the inning, and grabbed the 14-6 win in six innings.
Garcia helped pace the Conqs offense going 3-4 with three runs scored, a double, and an RBI. Saldivar went 2-3 with two RBI, a walk, and run scored and tossed one and a third inning of the contest.
Stephanie Torres went 2-3 with three runs scored, while
Jennifer Katz blasted the first Conquistador home run of the season and went 1-3 with two RBI, a run scored, home run, and walk.
Inside the circle,
Danika Utajara tossed four and two-thirds strong innings to earn the win giving up six runs with only two earned on eight hits and struck out two.
Game 2 – Conqs won 13-6
Game two saw a slow start for the offense for the Conqs but they got the bats rolling again as the game was scoreless after two innings but flipped to the Conqs favor in the top of the third. Seven hits in the top of the third including a leadoff double by Torres helped the Conqs score six runs in the inning to take control over Lamar early. Conqs added three more runs in the top of the fifth as
Ollievia Lowe and Katz highlighted the inning each hitting a solo home run. Lamar countered with a three-run bottom of the fifth to keep the game going and the Conqs would score four in the seventh, while Lamar plated three in the bottom of the seventh, and the Conqs sweep the day with a 13-6 game two win.
Six different Conqs had a multi-hit game in the victory led by Lowe who finished 4-5 with a home run, two runs scored, and two RBI. Garcia was 3-5 with a triple, three RBI, and two runs scored, while
Hadlee Richardson finished 3-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Katz added two hits including her second home run and had two RBI and scored two runs, while
Addison Spencer went 2-4 with a run scored, a walk, an RBI, and Castro was 2-4 with a triple, two runs scored, a walk, and two RBI.
Alexis Holman was strong in her first start as a Conq as she tossed five innings for the win giving up just three runs on five hits and a walk while striking out five.
The Conqs will continue their season on Friday and Saturday, February 11th and 12th when they compete in the Winter Blast Tournament in Denison, Texas with two games each day.
