WALK-OFF GRAND SLAM, CYCLE HIGHLIGHT SWEEP OF PRATT
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
A walk-off grand slam by Eli Duncan in Game 1 and Cru Huenfeld's second cycle of the season in Game 2 were two of the biggest moments in the No. 20-ranked Hutchinson Community College baseball team's KJCCC doubleheader sweep of the Pratt Beavers on Thursday.
Duncan's walk-off capped a rally from four runs down after one inning to defeat Pratt 9-5 in the series opener at Hobart-Detter Field. Then Huenfeld's cycle highlighted a 17-hit attack as the Blue Dragons run-ruled the Beavers 15-3 in seven innings.
The Blue Dragons improved to 39-11 overall and pulled within one game of first place in the Jayhawk West with a 21-5 record. Pratt fell to 12-34 overall and 4-22 in the Jayhawk West. The teams will complete the four-game series at Noon and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday at Stanion Field in Pratt.
The 39 wins are tied for sixth all time in Blue Dragon history with the 1992 and 2011 Blue Dragons.
Hutchinson has defeated Pratt in four straight and 15 of the last 16 games.
GAME 1 RECAP – Hutchinson 9, Pratt 5
The Blue Dragons trailed 4-0 after one inning and 5-4 after 5 1/2 innings in the series opener with the Beavers.
Hutchinson tied the game in the bottom of the sixth Huenfeld scored on a passed ball to knot the score at 5-5. Pratt then its first two batters on base to start the seventh, but first baseman Jordan Kuhnau made a diving catch of a popped up Beaver bunt and doubled off the runner at second and then fielded a grounder to end the threat.
The Blue Dragons loaded the bases with two out in the bottom of the seventh and Duncan hammered an 0-1 pitch over the center-field wall for a walkoff grand slam.
The grand slam was Duncan's second and the walkoff was his first as a Blue Dragon. The grand slam was Duncan's 26th career home run, who is now tied for fourth in Blue Dragon career homers with Michael Helman, Wyatt Divis and Sterling Sutliffe. The grand slam was the seventh hit by the 2026 Blue Dragons.
Kuhnau was 3 for 3 with a double, his 20th home run and three RBIs to lead the Blue Dragons, who had 10 hits in Game 1.
Anthony Mazza had a pair of doubles to go 2 for 4 with two runs scored. That extended his current hitting streak to 11 games. Huenfeld and Diesel Purnell had doubles.
With five doubles in Game 1, the 2026 Blue Dragons broke the team season record for doubles with 149, breaking the 2018 record of 147.
Relief pitcher Lincoln Muller (1-1) needed just one pitch to end the Pratt seventh and earn his first career win as a Blue Dragons. Wes Lyerly got going after a rough start, retiring 12-straight Pratt batters and 14 of 15 Beavers from the first through fifth innings. Nate McCombs pitched a scoreless inning.
GAME 2 RECAP – Hutchinson 15, Pratt 3 (7 innings)
Huenfeld went 4 for 5 with five runs batted in and three runs scored in his second cycle of the season. Huenfeld also hit for the cycle on March 5 at Colby.
Huenfeld opened Game 2 with a two-run double to center that was part of a four-run first inning for Hutchinson. He then smacked a two-run triple to right in the third to up the Dragon lead to 13-3. Huenfeld singles in the fourth and completed the cycle with a line-drive homer to right center with one out in the sixth.
A player hitting for two cycles in the same season is rare. It's happened only five times in Major League Baseball and only two NCAA Division I players from Florida and BYU have hit for two cycles in a season.
That home run was Huenfeld's 20th of the season. Kuhnau, with his Game 1 homer, and Huenfeld became the fourth and fifth Blue Dragons to hit at least 20 home runs in a season. Huenfeld now has 84 RBIs for the season, which ranks third in Blue Dragon single-season history.
Duncan went 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI. Finn Hochstein was 2 for 4 with a three-run home runs and four RBIs. Mazza went 2 for 4 with a double, home run and two RBIs to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. Jackson Schanuel was 2 for 3 with an RBI and three runs scored.
Kuhnau was 1 for 1 with three runs and an RBI. Now with 79 RBIs, Kuhnau moves into fifth on the Hutchinson single-season RBI list.
Hutchinson, through 50 games, now has 32 games of having 10 or more hits and 31 games of scoring 10 or more runs.
With the combined 24 runs and 27 hits, the 2026 Blue Dragons are now second in team history with 601 runs and fifth in single-season history with 610 hits.
Merek Yeager (6-1) earned the pitching win with five innings pitched. He allowed four hits and three unearned runs while tying a career high with nine strikeouts.
Vinny Jarrell and Jeffrey Neill each tossed one scoreless inning.