A’s rally to top Great Bend in opener

Dodge City, KS(westernkansasnews.com) The Dodge City A’s rallied from a 7-2 deficit to beat the Great Bend Bat Cats in their season opener Wednesday 9-8.

The Bat Cats got off to a hot start as Reese Johnson led off the game with a homerun. Great Bend then delivered five straight singles in the second inning, including a two run single by Mckay Banks and an RBI single by Nolan Riley to make it 4-0.

The A’s got on the board in the bottom of the third with an RBI single by Jake Cruce making it 4-1. The Bat Cats added a run in the fourth on an RBI groundout by Austin McNichols then added two runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Blaine Ray and walk by Reese Johnson, to make it 7-2.

Dodge City’s bats came alive in the sixth inning, Blake Shinkle drilled a three run homer to cut the deficit to 7-5. Later in the inning Dayton Cook had an RBI single and Sean Noel delivered an RBI sac-fly to tie the game.

Great Bend(2-2,0-1) took back the lead in the top of the eighth on an RBI sac-fly by Zack Berohn to make it 8-7. In the bottom half Sean Noel delivered an RBI single for the A’s(1-0) to tie the game again.

In the bottom of the ninth Dodge City loaded the bases with two outs then Jake Cruce delivered a walk-off single down the right field line for a 9-8 win.

Shinkle led the way for the A’s at the plate going 1-3 with a homerun three RBI and a walk. Jake Cruce was 2-5 with two singles and two RBI and Sean Noel went 1-4 with a single and two RBI. Brock Knoten(1-0) got the win pitching the last inning and getting three outs in three batters. Holcomb native Conner Van Cleave got the start for the A’s pitching four innings striking out four and allowing four runs on seven hits.