Dodge City baseball crossed over in the KJCCC to take on a KJCCC East foe as they did battle with #10 Johnson County at a neutral site playing the games at Emporia State University.
The Conquistadors would fall 12-5 in five innings and 9-2 to the Cavaliers of Johnson County moving to 21-9 on the season.
The Conqs return to KJCCC play next week as they will take on Cloud County in a four-game series that will start in Dodge City with a doubleheader on Thursday, March 28th.
Game 1 – Lost 12-5 vs Johnson County (5 innings)
The Conqs would find themselves down early against #10 Johnson County as the Cavaliers took advantage of three walks, a hit batter, and three hits in the bottom of the first inning to score six runs. The Conqs' uphill battle in the game continued to get bigger of a hill to climb back from as Johnson County added three more runs in the third and fourth innings each to lead 12-0. The Conqs looked to try to keep the game alive in the top of the fifth and would break through with a pair of runs off an RBI double by Juan Rivera and then Rivera would score on an error also, but it would not be enough as the Conqs fell 12-2 in five innings.
In the loss, Rivera led the Conqs offense recording three of the team's five hits with an RBI, double, and run scored. Andrew Detlefsen and Nathan Harmon each tallied a hit also for the Conqs.
Game 2 – Lost 9-2 vs Johnson County
The second game of the day started with early offense again for the Conqs opposition as Johnson County got on the board in the first inning with one run and then added two more in the second to lead 3-0. The fifth inning saw Johnson County add three runs to lead 6-0 but the Conqs would break through in the bottom of the inning plating two runs. Alex Galyean notched an RBI single and then Peter Tassler brought in a run on a groundout to make it 6-2 after five innings. Johnson County countered the Conqs two runs in the fifth with two of their own in the top of the sixth and then added another in the top of the ninth as the Conqs fell 9-2.
Tate Blasi, Cooper Schneider, and Max Towchik each recorded a multi-hit game in the loss all going 2-4. Galyean and Tassler finished the game with a hit and RBI. Seven different pitchers saw action for the Conqs with Josh Nolte tossing a scoreless two innings and Michael Lopez tossing a scoreless inning.