Dodge City softball team played host to Seward County for a Jayhawk Conference showdown on Saturday and dropped a pair of tight contests despite holding early leads, falling 7-5 and 6-3.
The Conqs with the losses fall to 7-10 on the season and 3-2 in KJCCC action with their next contest a makeup game at home against Northwest Kansas Tech on Tuesday, March 8th at 3:00 pm and then will travel to Pratt the next day for a doubleheader.
Game 1 – vs Seward County (Lost 7-5)
The ladies got the scoring started early as they continued to produce runs in the first inning this season tallying three in the bottom of the first in-game one against the Saints of Seward County. After a triple by
Melanie Castro to open the inning and a walk by
Kalei Villegas,
Makayla Garcia had a sacrifice fly to bring Castro for the first run.
Addison Spencer laced a double into centerfield later in the inning and scored two more runs for the Conqs to make it 3-0. Seward chipped away at the lead with a run in the second and another in the fourth and then in the fifth the Saints worked the bases loaded and blasted a grand slam to score four runs and take the lead and went on to add another run in the sixth. The Conqs rally in the seventh came with two-outs as Garcia doubled and that put two on after Castro was hit by a pitch in the inning and
Riley Haney produced a two-RBI single, but the scoring ended there as the Conqs fell 7-5.
Garcia and Haney paced the Conqs offense each recording two hits, while Castro, Spencer, and
Stephanie Torres each also had a hit. Garcia finished 2-3 with a run scored, double, and RBI, while Haney was 2-3 with two RBI, a walk, and a run scored. Castro continued her hot stretch at the plate going 1-2 with a run scored, walk, and triple.
In the circle,
Danika Utajara took the loss tossing 4.1 innings, while
Alexis Holman tossed two solid innings of relief not giving up a run on three hits and no walks with one strikeout. Utajara tallied four strikeouts on the day.
Game 2 – vs Seward County (Lost 6-3)
Game two saw the Conqs take the early advantage again but Seward battled back to ultimately take the contest despite the early lead for the Conqs. In the bottom of the first, the Conqs were on the board again with two runs highlighted by a Garcia RBI single, and then the Conqs scratched another run across in the bottom of the second to lead 3-0. Seward made it 3-2 with a pair of runs in the top of the third and it would remain that score until the top of the sixth when Seward took the lead behind two runs and then added two more in the top of the seventh as the Conqs fell 6-3 in the contest.
Castro and Villegas paced the Conqs at the plate each finishing with a pair of hits, as Castro was 2-3 with a run scored and walk and Villegas went 2-3 with a run scored and was hit by a pitch. Garcia added a 1-4 showing with two RBI.
Raemie Lopp pitched a strong 6.2 innings and took the tough loss despite striking out nine batters.
