A’s fall in walk-off to Great Bend, still clinch second place

Dodge City, KS(westernkansasnews.com) The Dodge City A’s fell to the Great Bend Bat Cats 4-3 due to a Austin McNicholas walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.

The Bat Cats took the first lead of the night on an RBI single by Andrew Schatz in the bottom of the second. The A’s tied the game in the third on an RBI single from Jordan Vujovich making it 1-1. Great Bend pulled back in front with an RBI single from Gavin Johnson in the bottom of the third to make it 2-1. The Bat Cats stretched the lead to 3-1 on an RBI double by Thomas Alexander in the bottom of the fourth.

Dodge City moved closer in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Dylan Johnson to make it 3-2. The A’s then tied the game in the seventh on another RBI single from Vujovich.

In the bottom of the ninth Great Bend’s Reese Johnson delivered a one out single and then stole second. Austin McNicholas then hit a walk-off RBI single to win the game 4-3.

Neil Lemmons got the win for the Bat Cats(11-23) pitching the last three innings allowing just one run on two hits. Gabriel Sotomayor took the loss for the A’s pitching a third of an inning and surrendering the loss to the Bat Cats.

Dodge City(21-13) still clinched second place with Liberal losing to Hays. The A’s will get the first week of the National Baseball Congress World Series off and advance to the Championship Week beginning on August 3.

The A’s will play their final home game on Tuesday night against Great Bend with the first pitch at 7:30 p.m.