Dodge City baseball opened a big KJCCC series with Seward County on Thursday at home and would battle with the Saints but ultimately dropped a pair of contests falling 5-2 and 14-11.
The losses send the Conquistadors to 24-22 on the season and 14-8 in KJCCC action, while also snapping a five-game win streak on the season and a four-game win streak against Seward.
The series continues Saturday, April 22nd as the Conqs will travel to Liberal for a doubleheader starting at 1:00 pm.
Game 1 – Lost 5-2 vs Seward County
The day started with both teams working early base runners but the series opener would be scoreless after two innings. In the top of the third Seward County took the early lead plating two runs and then would add another in the fourth and one more in the fifth. Finally in the sixth after stranding multiple base runners the Conqs broke through with an infield single, double, and walk to load the bases and then a sacrifice fly by Ethan Hewell and RBI groundout from Cooper Tomkinson the Conqs would score two runs. Seward County answered with a run in the top of the seventh and the Conqs would get just one base runner in the bottom of the seventh to fall 5-2 in the series opener.
In the loss, Tristan Wolf tossed six solid innings giving up five runs on six hits and two walks, while Zack Robinson tossed one inning.
Hewell led the Conqs offense going 2-2 with an RBI, while Zandt Payne was 1-2 with two hit-by pitches. Andrew Detlefsen drew a walk and was hit by a pitch, while Donnie Rhyne drew a pair of walks. Brian Hallum was 1-3 with a run scored and a double.
Game 2 – Lost 14-11 vs Seward County
The second game of the day featured more offense between both teams, and it was early offense also in the contest. The Saints took the early scoring three runs in the top of the first inning, while the Conqs would manage one run taking advantage of a leadoff walk by Payne as he scored on a sacrifice fly by Caden Matlon. In the third Seward extended their lead with a run and then added four more in the fourth to lead 8-1. The bottom of the fourth saw the Conqs get back on the board as Matlon belted a solo home run and the Conqs would score another run for two in the fourth. After both teams tallied a run in the fifth and then Seward scored another in the top of the sixth the Conqs batted around in the bottom of the sixth scoring five runs. A pair of two RBI singles by Payne and Alex Galyean highlighted the five-run out for the Conqs to make it a 10-9 contest entering the seventh. Seward had another answer plating three in the seventh and another in the eighth. The Conqs would try to mount another comeback scoring two in the eighth but left the bases loaded and then stranded two in the ninth to drop game two 14-11.
Conqs had a 13-hit attack for the contest in the loss led by Galyean who was 3-4 with three RBI and a run scored. Payne added a 2-5 game with a walk, two runs scored, and two RBI, while Rhyne was 1-3 with three walks and three runs scored. Detlefsen added a 2-5 game with two runs scored, a double, and a walk.
