Conquistadors win series finale; take three of four from Broncbusters

Garden City, KS-Peter Tassler had four hits, the top of the order combined for eight, and Dodge City took its four-game series from Garden City with a 12-5 victory in the finale Saturday night at Williams Stadium. The loss dropped the Broncbusters to 5-18 overall and 3-5 in conference play. 

Garden City experienced more pitching woes as starter Kaden Johnson allowed five runs on seven hits in three innings. The bullpen then combined to give up seven more. Couple that with a season-high four errors, and the Broncbusters didn't give themselves much of a shot.  

Michael DeBattista improved to 2-1 on the year, allowing just two earned runs on four hits in 4.1 innings. His bullpen, a combination of Andrew Taylor, Brian Hallum, and Trenton Chenard, yielded just one run on four hits over the final five frames for Dodge City, which improved to 14-14 overall and 6-2 in conference play. They sit in second place in the Jayhawk.  

For the Broncbusters, Johnson got into trouble in the second. He issued back-to-back walks to Donnie Rhyne and Jordan Rodriquez before Tassler, who provided two of the Conquistadors' five extra base-hits on the day, smoked a two-run double to right-center. Zandt Payne blooped an RBI single to right; then scored on an error by outfielder Connor Camden to make it 4-0. Tassler added another RBI double in the third. 

In the fourth, Andrew Detlefsen tripled off reliever John De Coste, plating Cooper Tomkinson for a 6-0 advantage. 

Garden City crawled back in the game in the fifth on Konner Hatfield's two-run single and Quinn Gundelfinger's RBI base hit to right that cut the deficit to two. But Dodge City answered with two more in the sixth. Two innings later, Tassler's RBI single made it 9-5 before the Conquistadors plated three in the ninth.