Dodge City baseball opened Jayhawk Conference play starting a series with Hutchinson on the road on Thursday and would play to the split of the doubleheader taking game one 13-7 and falling 10-1 in game two. 
 
The split moves the Conquistadors to 7-13 on the season and 1-1 in conference play. The series against the Blue Dragons of Hutchinson will wrap up on Saturday, March 11th with a doubleheader in Dodge City starting at 1:00 pm. 
 
Game 1 – Won 13-7 at Hutchinson 
The Conqs jumped up early on Hutchinson to open the series having a five-run outburst to open game one of the series. Carter Olson brought in the first two runs of the afternoon for the Conqs on a two-RBI single, then Ethan Hewell followed suit with an RBI single while both Carson Wright and Cooper Schneider each drew bases-loaded walks for two more runs to make it 5-0. Conqs tacked on another run in the second and another in the third on an RBI triple by Nick Mesquita to make it 7-0. Hutchinson would get on the board with a pair of runs in the third and another in the fourth, but Conqs got one back in the fifth only to see the Blue Dragons tally four in the bottom of the fifth to make it a one-run game at 8-7. In the sixth, they responded again with another run as Zandt Payne led the inning off with a single and came in to score on a sac-fly by Cooper Tomkinson. Looking for insurance runs in the top of the seventh the Conqs plated four runs highlighted by RBI base hits from Tomkinson and Brian Hallum. The Conqs would shut the door in the bottom of the seventh to secure the 13-7 win. 
 
Offensively the Conqs pounded out 18 hits with six guys recording a multi-hit game. Mesquita finished 3-5 with two runs scored, a triple, and RBI, while Payne was 3-5 with three runs scored. Schneider added a 2-3 day with a walk, two RBI, a double, and two runs scored. Andrew Detlefsen and Hallum each had two hits, while Hewell was 3-5 with three RBI, and two runs scored. 
 
Hallum was also strong on the mound tossing the final 2.2 innings without giving up a run and only giving up two hits and a walk while striking out four. Tristan Wolf earned the win as the starter tossing four innings of work with five strikeouts. 
 
Game 2 – Lost 10-1 at Hutchinson
Game two was a quieter start for the Conq bats as the offense struggled to keep the momentum going from game one at the plate. In the bottom of the first, the Conqs saw Hutchinson plate a run to take the initial lead. In the top of the third, a leadoff double by Wright led to the Conqs tying the game as Mesquita delivered a two-out RBI single to even the game up at 1-1. However, Hutchinson answered by scoring three in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings each and another in the sixth, along with two more in the eighth leading to a 10-1 final score in favor of the Blue Dragons. 
 
The Conqs had just four hits in the loss as Mesquita was 1-4 with an RBI, and Wright was 1-2 with a run scored and a double. While Jordan Rodriguez went 1-1 and Payne added a 1-4 performance. 
 
Michael Lopez tossed four innings as the starter taking the loss, while Jayden Minter had a solid two innings of relief surrendering just one run on one hit and three walks.