Dodge City Rangers Win Legion Tournament Opener; Garden City Elite Split

Dodge City, KS (westernkansasnews.com) The first day of the AAA Zone American Legion Baseball Tournament started out the wrong way for the Garden City Elite. Garden City entered the tournament the number one seed, but fell behind early and lost 11-2 at the hands of the fourth seed Great Bend. A bases clearing three run double in the fifth brought a manageable 4-0 deficit into a runaway 7-0 game.

On the other hand, Dodge City looked to defend their zone title as the third seed against second seeded Russell. The Rangers were 20-12 coming in and used a 4 run second inning to lay claim on an 8-1 win over Russell. The second seeded Russell entered the tournament at 24-6. By the end of the day they would be knocked out of the double elimination tournament.

Eric Reid and Roman Galloway were the offensive stars for Dodge City. Reid was 2-4 with 2 RBI and Galloway added a two run single in the four run second. That was enough for Nick Nelson who scattered three hits over seven innings and allowed only one run in the final inning he worked the seventh in notching the win. Dodge City advances to play Great Bend at 4 on Thursday. The winner captures the zone championship and qualifies for this year’s state tournament in McPherson.

For Garden City it will be a tougher road, but the good news for the Elite is they came back from their earlier loss to Great Bend and had no troubles with Russell winning 4-1. Both catcher Thomas Solario and centerfielder Matt Armstrong homered to left off Russell starter Brayden Delzeit. Garden City took advantage of five errors from Russell and the four runs scored was just enough offense for Elite pitcher Ryder Yakel to seal up the complete game win.

Garden City will watch the 4 pm game between day one winners Great Bend and Dodge City before playing the loser of Thursday’s game one in an elimination game at 6:30pm.

Post-game Dodge City Rangers Coach Chris Chilton