Playing against one of the toughest teams it had seen all season, the Dodge City Community College Conquistador baseball team couldn't manage any more than one run in any innings of Monday's doubleheader in Arkansas City.
The Conqs' season came to an end after the first two games of a three-game playoff matchup with Cowley County CC went the way of the Tiger. As the No. 8 seed in the Jayhawk West Conference, the Conqs were forced to head east to face the No. 1 team in the Jayhawk East in the opening round of the NJCAA Region VI playoffs.
Dodge City dropped game one of the series 6-3 behind Stephen Leddy and fell 8-3 in game two behind Joaquin Montano.
"They're a very good ball club," said DCCC coach Phil Stephenson of the opposition from Cowley (38-12, 29-7 Jayhawk East in the regular season). "They've got a lot of good pitchers, and there's a reason they've won 40 games this year."
The Tigers' ability to turn the Conqs' mistakes into multiple runs proved to be the difference in both games. Dodge, which dinked and dunked for one run at a time for most of the day, couldn't keep up.
When the Conqs (18-34, 9-23 Jayhawk West through regular season) stranded a runner on third with one out in the first inning of game one, the Tigers turned around with what was essentially a two-run swing on Ronald Melendez's leadoff homer in the bottom of the frame. The Conqs tied the game in the third, when center fielder Cody Lunsford drove in David Saiz on a groundout to second base.
Dodge took a brief 2-1 lead in the fifth, when Doan came home from third on a wild pitch with the bases chucked and one out. But Rudy Krist and Javy Alvarado struck out to end the Conq threat.
Cowley plated five more runs in the next two innings to take the lead back for good. Cowley's Stephen Kohlscheen got the win for the Tigers, and Stephen Leddy (6-5, 4.91 ERA) took the loss for the Conqs.
With some of the same run-support problems, Joaquin Montano (1-6, 4.00 ERA) took the 8-3 loss for the Conqs in game two. Dodge City took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when third baseman Mike Schnedar drove Bibens home from third on a ground out.
"For the most part, our pitching gave us a chance to win both times out," Stephenson said. "We had opportunities, but we couldn't put up a crooked number on them when we had a chance to."
Cowley came back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first on two hits and two Conq errors to take the early 3-1 advantage.
The Conqs answered with another single run in the second. Doan's RBI-ground out brought right fielder Scott Absher home to cut the Cowley lead to 3-2, but that was as close as Dodge could come to pulling the upset with the season on the line. Cowley got one more in the third and two in the fifth to make it 6-2 before outlasting Dodge 8-3 to move on to the second round of the regional playoffs.
"We just had one of those years with too many injuries and not enough depth in our pitching staff," Stephenson said. "We hope our returning players will learn from it, and we'll do some things to make us better next year. This year was a learning experience for a lot of individuals, and we've got a group of guys that are going to get the opportunity and deserve the opportunity to continue playing at the next level."
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Playing against one of the toughest teams it had seen all season, the Dodge City Community College Conquistador baseball team couldn't manage any more than one run in any innings of Monday's doubleheader in Arkansas City.
The Conqs' season came to an end after the first two games of a three-game playoff matchup with Cowley County CC went the way of the Tiger. As the No. 8 seed in the Jayhawk West Conference, the Conqs were forced to head east to face the No. 1 team in the Jayhawk East in the opening round of the NJCAA Region VI playoffs.
Dodge City dropped game one of the series 6-3 behind Stephen Leddy and fell 8-3 in game two behind Joaquin Montano.
"They're a very good ball club," said DCCC coach Phil Stephenson of the opposition from Cowley (38-12, 29-7 Jayhawk East in the regular season). "They've got a lot of good pitchers, and there's a reason they've won 40 games this year."
The Tigers' ability to turn the Conqs' mistakes into multiple runs proved to be the difference in both games. Dodge, which dinked and dunked for one run at a time for most of the day, couldn't keep up.
When the Conqs (18-34, 9-23 Jayhawk West through regular season) stranded a runner on third with one out in the first inning of game one, the Tigers turned around with what was essentially a two-run swing on Ronald Melendez's leadoff homer in the bottom of the frame. The Conqs tied the game in the third, when center fielder Cody Lunsford drove in David Saiz on a groundout to second base.
Dodge took a brief 2-1 lead in the fifth, when Doan came home from third on a wild pitch with the bases chucked and one out. But Rudy Krist and Javy Alvarado struck out to end the Conq threat.
Cowley plated five more runs in the next two innings to take the lead back for good. Cowley's Stephen Kohlscheen got the win for the Tigers, and Stephen Leddy (6-5, 4.91 ERA) took the loss for the Conqs.
With some of the same run-support problems, Joaquin Montano (1-6, 4.00 ERA) took the 8-3 loss for the Conqs in game two. Dodge City took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when third baseman Mike Schnedar drove Bibens home from third on a ground out.
"For the most part, our pitching gave us a chance to win both times out," Stephenson said. "We had opportunities, but we couldn't put up a crooked number on them when we had a chance to."
Cowley came back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first on two hits and two Conq errors to take the early 3-1 advantage.
The Conqs answered with another single run in the second. Doan's RBI-ground out brought right fielder Scott Absher home to cut the Cowley lead to 3-2, but that was as close as Dodge could come to pulling the upset with the season on the line. Cowley got one more in the third and two in the fifth to make it 6-2 before outlasting Dodge 8-3 to move on to the second round of the regional playoffs.
"We just had one of those years with too many injuries and not enough depth in our pitching staff," Stephenson said. "We hope our returning players will learn from it, and we'll do some things to make us better next year. This year was a learning experience for a lot of individuals, and we've got a group of guys that are going to get the opportunity and deserve the opportunity to continue playing at the next level."
