Going into the bottom of the ninth Sunday night, it looked like Liberal would win its third game of a four-game National Baseball Congress series, as the Bee Jays held a 7-5 lead.
The A’s scored a run and strung together some hits to bring hot-hitting Jeremy Gum to the plate in the ninth. Gum hit his fifth double in two games to bring home two runs and give the A’s an 8-7 win. Gum said it was the first walk-off hit in his life.
“I was just trying to get a pitch I could hit,” Gum said. “I was trying not to be to picky. I just wanted a single to score the run from second. I was able to square up the pitch in the strike zone. Luckily, I hit it hard enough.”
His teammates rushed the field and piled on top of him, as soon as Trey Whaley crossed the plate with the game-winner.
“The guys believe they can score and that is important,” A’s head coach Phil Stephenson said. “We are not out of any ball game when we are behind. You have to have a little belief that way and as a group we do. It is not just one guy or two guys, everybody is contributing.”
The win helped the A’s improve to 14-21 overall and 8-16 in the Jayhawk League. Liberal is now 24-10, 16-10.
“Coach has really been preaching to play all nine innings,” Gum said. “A couple games in the middle innings we got kind of got a little lackadaisical and weren’t hitting and got kind of careless in the field. Playing nine innings is the key to winning those close games.”
The A’s Rick Lesperance tied the game in the sixth with a “Rick-stick” hit, a blooper to shallow right field, that has been nicknamed by Dodge City Community College players because Lesperance does it so often. It drove in Gum to tie the game at 5 in the sixth.
“It all started in college in his first year here,” Stephenson said. “A lot of hits he got were just off the handle, off the end, shots over there down the right -field line and we just starting calling it Rick sticks and it kind of stuck.”
Marc Gomez came up big for the Bee Jays earlier in the game, breaking a 5-5 tie, hitting a two-run triple with two outs for a 7-5 lead.
But the A’s answered with a trio of runs in the ninth.
Gum had three doubles in the game. His first double drove in Whaley in the second inning. Gum later scored off a sacrifice fly by Michael Fear.
Liberal’s most productive inning was in the third, getting six hits and scoring four runs.
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Going into the bottom of the ninth Sunday night, it looked like Liberal would win its third game of a four-game National Baseball Congress series, as the Bee Jays held a 7-5 lead.
The A’s scored a run and strung together some hits to bring hot-hitting Jeremy Gum to the plate in the ninth. Gum hit his fifth double in two games to bring home two runs and give the A’s an 8-7 win. Gum said it was the first walk-off hit in his life.
“I was just trying to get a pitch I could hit,” Gum said. “I was trying not to be to picky. I just wanted a single to score the run from second. I was able to square up the pitch in the strike zone. Luckily, I hit it hard enough.”
His teammates rushed the field and piled on top of him, as soon as Trey Whaley crossed the plate with the game-winner.
“The guys believe they can score and that is important,” A’s head coach Phil Stephenson said. “We are not out of any ball game when we are behind. You have to have a little belief that way and as a group we do. It is not just one guy or two guys, everybody is contributing.”
The win helped the A’s improve to 14-21 overall and 8-16 in the Jayhawk League. Liberal is now 24-10, 16-10.
“Coach has really been preaching to play all nine innings,” Gum said. “A couple games in the middle innings we got kind of got a little lackadaisical and weren’t hitting and got kind of careless in the field. Playing nine innings is the key to winning those close games.”
The A’s Rick Lesperance tied the game in the sixth with a “Rick-stick” hit, a blooper to shallow right field, that has been nicknamed by Dodge City Community College players because Lesperance does it so often. It drove in Gum to tie the game at 5 in the sixth.
“It all started in college in his first year here,” Stephenson said. “A lot of hits he got were just off the handle, off the end, shots over there down the right -field line and we just starting calling it Rick sticks and it kind of stuck.”
Marc Gomez came up big for the Bee Jays earlier in the game, breaking a 5-5 tie, hitting a two-run triple with two outs for a 7-5 lead.
But the A’s answered with a trio of runs in the ninth.
Gum had three doubles in the game. His first double drove in Whaley in the second inning. Gum later scored off a sacrifice fly by Michael Fear.
Liberal’s most productive inning was in the third, getting six hits and scoring four runs.
Saturday's games
LIBERAL — On Saturday night, the Dodge City Athletics split a doubleheader with Liberal, winning the first game in dramatic fashion.
After overcoming a 7-0 deficit to force extra innings, Rick Lesperance drove in the winning run with an RBI single, winning 8-7.
In the nightcap, Liberal won 8-6.
“It would be nice not to have to play from behind all the time” Dodge City head coach Phil Stephenson said. “But at least it shows the guys are staying in the game, that we are capable of breaking out and scoring runs in bunches if we stay on top of things.”
Soon after, Will Hagel walked with the bases loaded to add one more and Brock Green had a three-run double to give Dodge City a cushion. This was the first time the A’s have defeated their Jayhawk League foe this season.
The National Baseball Congress comeback started in the seventh inning, the final inning of first game of the doubleheader.
Liberal had a commanding 7-1 lead, but RBI hits from Jeremy Gum, Nate Hewes, Allen Riley and Green tied the game up.
In the second game, the A’s struck first, scoring two in the top of the first, but Liberal left the game with the victory, winning 8-6.
Dodge City’s two-run lead did not last long as Liberal scored three in the bottom half of the first inning, including a leadoff home run from Aaron Mees.
Dodge City went back up in the third, scoring four. Jason Schmidt had a two-run home run to give the A’s a 6-3 lead.
But again, Dodge City could not hold onto the lead for long. Marc Gomez topped off a five-run fourth with a three-run homer to give the Bee Jays a lead they would not give up.
NATIONAL BASEBALL CONGRESS
Jayhawk League
Sunday
At Cavalier Field
Dodge City 8, Liberal 7
123 456 789 R H E
Liberal 004 010 020 — 7 16 1
Dodge City 021 011 003 — 8 12 0
Will Alvis, Parker Markel (7), Nick Youpel (9), Travis Parker & Mike McCarthy; Albert Baez, Jesus Francies (7) & Rick Lesperance. W — Francies. L — Parker. 2B — Liberal: Nick Cocking; Dodge City: Jeremy Gum 3. 3B — Liberal: Marc Gomez. HR — Liberal: Kyle Borden.
NATIONAL BASEBALL CONGRESS
Jayhawk League
Saturday
At Liberal
Dodge City 12, Liberal 7
123 456 78 — R H E
Dodge City 000 001 65 — 12 15 4
Liberal 041 110 00 — 7 13 1
Karch Kowalcyzyk, Cruz Sedillo (6) & Rick Lesperance; Mike McBride, Marc Gomez (7), Nick Youpel (7), Christian Kowalchuk (8), Cruz (8) & David Masters. W — Sedillo. L — Kowalchuk. 2B —Dodge City: Brock Green, Jeremy Gum, Nate Hewes; Richard Bohlken 2, Marc Gomez, Sam Konnoff.
Game 2
Liberal 8, Dodge City 6
123 456 7 R H E
Dodge City 204 000 0 — 6 9 0
Liberal 300 500 0 — 8 9 0
Brian Vogit, CJ Bula (4) & Daniel Olinger; Austin Robson, Ramos (3), Parker Markel (5), Cruz (7) & Mike McCarthy. W — Ramos. L — Bula. 2B — Dodge City: Jeremy Gum 2, Daniel Olinger; Liberal: Borden, Richard Bohlken; HR— Dodge City: Jason Schmidt; Liberal: Aaron Mees, Marc Gomez.
