Big innings lead A’s to win over Liberal

Dodge City, Kan. (westernkansasnews.com)–One of the hottest teams in the Jayhawk league may be the Dodge City A’s. In their last four outings against the top two teams, the A’s have now gone 3-1 against Hays and Liberal combined. Tuesday night at Cavalier Field, the Dodge City offense attacked the Bee Jays early on, and posted a 10-4 win in the first meeting of the year between the two foes.

Liberal scored first in the top of the first inning on an RBI double by Brett Vosik that scored Dane Simon to take the early 1-0 lead. Dodge City answered, as David Gonzalez and Dante Facchio had RBI singles to give the A’s the early 2-1 edge. The A’s would tack on three more in the second inning, highlighted by Jordan Vujovich’s two-run double to push the lead to 4-1. A Faicchio sacrifice fly scored Vuyovich to push the lead to 5-1.

The score would remain the same until the fifth inning, when Chase Hacker blasted a ball over the scoreboard in left center field to pull the Bee Jays to within 5-2. Dodge City would get a big seventh inning, plating five runs. They sent 10 to bat in the inning as well. Dayton Cook would have an RBI double, and Carlos Arellano had a two-run single to aid in the five-run inning.

Liberal scored two runs in the top of the ninth to make the final 10-4.

Dayton Cook went 2-4 with an RBI, and Kyle Cullen went 2-5 with two runs scored. Dante Faicchio and Carlos Arellano drove in two runs apiece. Conner VanCleave picked up the win, giving up two runs on six hits with three strikeouts in five innings of work. The A’s had 10 hits, with five of them going for doubles.

Liberal also had 10 hits in the game, with three of them coming from Tom Lichty. Chase Hacker went 2-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Zach Zeller gave up five runs on five hits with a strikeout in only two innings of work.

Dodge City improves to 9-6 overall, and 7-6 in conference play. They have now won four straight games, and will host Hays on Wednesday night. Liberal drops to 14-8 on the year, and 12-7 in conference play, as they will have three days off before hosting Dodge City Saturday night.

After Tuesday, Hays has a one-game lead on Liberal, and Dodge City is in third place by percentage points over El Dorado and Derby in the league standings, and are two games behind Hays.

Coach Tony Gonzalez Postgame