Dodge City, KS- The Cloud County Thunderbird baseball team traveled to defending region champion Dodge City over the weekend. They dropped the first three games but managed to take game four from the Conquistadors by a score fo 3-1 to avoid the sweep. 

Freshman righthander Nick Wordekemper provided Cloud with just the start they needed. The freshman from Omaha stepped up in the game four start to pick up the win for the T-Birds. Wordekemper went seven innings, scattering seven hits, and allowing just one run. He struck out five and walked three.

Cloud turned the game over to sophomore Cole Otto in the eighth. Otto worked a scoreless eighth and pitched around a leadoff error in the ninth to slam the door and pick up his first save of the season. Otto has been solid for the T-Birds in relief. In nine appearances, Otto has a 2.70 ERA and has struck out 22 in just 13.1 innings.

The T-Birds had opportunities to win in each game of the series. John Badgett struggled with control in game one but battled to keep the T-Birds in the ball game. Badgett walked six but struck out seven over 4 2/3 innings. He left in the 5th with the game tied at four. Brandon Mitchell replaced Badgett and took the loss. The big blow came on a two-run home run from Dodge City catcher Colton Onstott in the sixth. Cloud fell in game one 7-4.

Game two was a high scoring affair. Dodge jumped all over Cloud starter John Stiger and grabbed a quick 11-4 lead after just three innings. The T-Birds refused to go away as they stormed back with a five run fifth inning to make it 11-9. Dodge City would then tack on four more in the seventh to go back up by six. Cloud made things interesting in the top of the ninth as they sent ten guys to the plate in the inning. With two outs and down by one Cloud had the the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at the plate. Jacob Grady had hit two home runs in the game already and started the 9th inning rally with a walk but grounded out to end the threat and Cloud lost 15-14. 

The T-Birds dropped game three 5-1. Alex Torkelson picked up the loss. Cloud trailed 3-1 for the majority of the game before the Conqs tacked on two more insurance runs in the sixth to seal it. 

Grady, Jake Wells and Trace Nelson did the majority of the offensive damage for the T-Birds. They combined for 14 hits on the weekend, eight of which were for extra bases.

Cloud has postponed their doubleheader with Brown Mackie on Wednesday to a later undetermined date. They will look ahead to the weekend as they host Garden City in a four game Jayhawk Conference series starting on Saturday.