Dodge City baseball continued their quest for a top-half finish in the KJCCC West to host a first-round playoff series and after taking two games at home over Butler the Conquistadors would grab the series win with a split in El Dorado. The series win marks the first for the Conqs against Butler since 2017.
The Conqs claimed game one in El Dorado over Butler 6-5 helping their chances for a first-round playoff series at home and would cap the series with a tough 17-2 loss in seven innings.
The split in El Dorado moved the Conqs to 33-19 on the season 17-10 in KJCCC play.
The Conqs have one more series to cap the regular season as they take on Colby with a trip to Colby on Thursday, May 2nd, and then a home doubleheader against the Trojans on Saturday, May 4th to cap the regular season.
Game 1 – Won 6-5 at Butler
Just like the first two games of the series the Conqs would start the scoring as Carter Olson belted his third home run of the series making it a two-run shot to give the Conqs the early 2-0 advantage. Butler would flip the lead their way in the bottom of the second with four runs including a two-run home run of their own. In the third inning, each team would scratch a run across with the Conqs getting theirs from Juan Rivera who led the third inning off with a home run. Down 5-3 the Conqs regained the lead in the top of the sixth behind a three-run inning which included a two-run home run by Max Towchik to tie the game then Nick Gray would score on an Andrew Detlefsen single and Butler error giving the Conqs the 6-5 lead. In the bottom of the seventh, the Conqs would see Butler get the tying run on but induced a game-ending double play from Michael Lopez who finished the game getting the save in relief of Brian Hallum as the Conqs won 6-5.
Hallum earned the win in 6.1 innings of work striking out six, while Lopez picked up his second save of the season.
A trio of Conqs had multi-hit games including Detlefsen who was 2-3 with a stolen base, while Rivera was 2-4 with an RBI, run scored, home run, and stolen base. Olson added a 2-4 game with two runs scored, two RBI, and a home run.
Game 2 – Lost 17-2 at Butler (7 innings)
In the series finale, the Conqs once again scored first behind a Hallum RBI single in the top of the first inning to score Cooper Schneider, but Butler would do most of the scoring the rest of the way. The Grizzlies of Butler plated three runs in the bottom of the third to take the lead and then added five in the second. The Conqs were back on the board in the third on a Towchik RBI single but Butler scored two in the bottom of the third to lead 10-2. The Grizzlies added another in the fourth and six more in the sixth leading to a run-rule decision in seven innings 17-2 in the series finale.
In the loss, Schneider was 2-3 with a run scored, while both Nick Mesquita and Brady Henke each had a double.
