DODGE CITY — The Great Bend AAA American Legion baseball team struck first in the Zone Tournament-opening game on Monday against Dodge City.
The Chiefs entered as the No. 6 seed. Dodge City was the No. 3 seed.
The Rangers were able to come away with a 5-2 victory.
“We didn’t play bad,” Chiefs head coach Michael Stettinger said. “Tristan Hall pitched a good game. He went eight innings.
“Defensively, we had a few errors that hurt us, and we had a couple of walks that came back to bite us.”
Great Bend scored one run in the bottom of the second inning, but Dodge City evened things up in the top of the third.
The Rangers took control of the game in the top of the sixth, scoring two runs to make it 3-1.
Great Bend scored a run in the bottom of the seventh, closing the gap to 3-2.
The Rangers managed one run in both the eighth and the ninth innings to secure the win.
Tristan Hall took the mound for the Chiefs, going eight innings.
He gave up four runs (three earned) on eight hits and five walks. He had five strikeouts.
Tyler Nuss closed things up in the ninth, giving up one earned runs on two hits and one walk.
Bryce Beck went 3-for-5 and Jaxx Hillman was 2-for-4 to lead the Chiefs at the plate.
Shade Wondra and Anson Hall each had an RBI.
Great Bend left nine runners on base in the game.
“The runners were fairly spread out,” Stettinger said. “We did have bases loaded once, but that was with two outs.
“We just didn’t have many runners. We played a nine-inning game and we only had that many runners, that’s not much.”
Great Bend plays again today at 11 a.m.
 
                                                              — Kevin Price