DRAGONS GET SERIES WIN OVER BUTLER; NEHLS NETS CAREER WIN NO. 200
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
EL DORADO – After dropping the series opener with the Butler Grizzlies on Thursday at Hobart-Detter Field, the Hutchinson Community College baseball team answered that challenge in a big way.
Following the Game 1 loss, the No. 11-ranked Blue Dragons reeled off three-straight run-rule victories over the Grizzlies. Hutchinson, on Saturday, earned the series win over Butler with rule-run wins of 18-8 in six innings and 17-5 in eight innings at McDonald Stadium.
The Game 1 win on Saturday was a milestone victory for Blue Dragon head coach Brock Nehls, who captured his 200th career victory as a head coach. Nehls now has 120 wins in his third season at Hutchinson and 81 wins when he was the head coach at William Woods College.
The Blue Dragons (29-5 overall, 11-1 Jayhawk West) continue their key three-week stretch with a single game against Cowley at 2 p.m. Tuesday and then a four-game series with No. 4 Cloud County Thursday in Concordia and Saturday at Hobart-Detter Field.
Hutchinson hit a combined nine home runs on Saturday and had 13 for the series. With four homers in Game 1 and five more in Game 2, the Blue Dragons now have 11 games with four or more homers, including in 9 of the last 14 games.
GAME 1 RECAP – Hutchinson 18, Butler 8, 6 innings
Jordan Kuhnau had a huge game for the Blue Dragons, going 4 for 4 with a double, two home runs and a season-high seven RBIs in Game 1.
Kuhnau had a sacrifice fly in the first, a solo home run in the third, a three-run homer in the fourth and a two-run double in the sixth.
This was Kuhnau's fourth two-home run game of the season, his second four-hit game of the season and he tied Cru Huenfeld for the individual season high with seven RBIs. Kuhnau's seven RBIs also tie for the fourth-most RBIs in a single game with nine other players.
The Blue Dragons hammered out 20 total hits with seven doubles and four homers.
Aidan Marien was 3 for 3 with two doubles, three runs and three RBIs. Jackson Schanuel went 3 for 4 with three runs and an RBI. Huenfeld had a double and homer in going 3 for 5 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Eli Duncan was 3 for 4 with a homer and two RBIs with three runs scored.
Noah McCombs (2-0) pitched the final 2 1-3 innings to get the pitching victory. He allowed two hits and one earned run.
Tied at 1-1 after one inning, an RBI double by Diesel Purcell and a Marien sacrifice fly gave the Dragons a 3-1 lead in the second. The Dragons added three more in the third with a leadoff homer by Kuhnau and Huenfeld's two-run homer in the third.
The Dragons tacked on four more runs in the fourth with Kuhnau's three-run homer and a Huenfeld RBI double to take a 10-7 lead.
Hutchinson then exploded for eight runs in the top of the sixth. Sending 11 batters to the plate, the Dragons got two-run doubles from Marien, Kuhnau and a two-run homer from Duncan to build an 18-7 lead.
GAME 2 RECAP – Hutchinson 17, Butler 5, 8 innings
The Blue Dragons posted their 28th and 29th innings this season scoring five or more runs inning with a five-run fourth and sixth-run eighth to break open the series finale.
The Dragons out-hit Butler 16-8, pounding out five double and five home runs in the game.
Max Flowers went 3 for 5 with a home run, three runs scored and a pair of RBIs to lead the Dragons.
Schanuel was 3 for 5 with a double and two RBIs.
With single hit in Game 1 and going 2 for 4 with a homer and two RBIs in Game 2, Anthony Mazza extended his hitting streak to 23 games, which is the second-longest hit streak in Blue Dragon history.
Duncan extended his hitting streak to 19 games with single hits in both games Saturday. He is now tied with Trever Adams (2009) and Luis Pimental-Guerrero (2024) for the fourth-longest hitting streak in team history.
Kuhnau was 2 for 4 with a double, home run and two RBIs. Finn Hochstein was 2 for 5 with two doubles and an RBI.
Starting pitcher Cameron Curtis (3-0) pitched five innings to earn the victory. He allowed seven hits and three runs with two strikeouts and no walks. Lincoln Muller pitched two perfect innings with one strikeout to close out the game.
TEAM NOTES – With Jordan Kuhnau's two-home run game in Game 1, 10 different times this season the Blue Dragons have had a player with two homers in one game. … Kuhnau now has two home-run games against Des Moines Area, Colby, Dodge City and Butler. … Now with 80 home runs for the season, the 2026 Blue Dragons are tied for No. 7 in single-season team history. … Kuhnau now has a team-high 15 homers for the season, which ties him with Matt Rebout (2002), Stewart Hoover (2008) and Cody Gunderson (2024) for 10th on the Blue Dragon single-season list. … Eli Duncan now has 22 career homers, which ties Bobby Morgensen, Logan Sartori, Zane Schmidt and Colin Cymbalista for 11th on the career homer list. … Hutchinson now has 24 games with 10 or more runs and 23 games with 10 or more hits this season. … The Dragons' 23 triples this season are six most in team single-game history.