[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ HCC SPORTS INFORMATION ]

Photo courtesy of HCC Sports Information

WICHITA, Kan. — Sophomore Nolan Hoffman tossed a complete-game four hitter and the No. 3-ranked Hutchinson Community College Baseball Team won only its second Region VI Tournament opening-round game since winning it all in 2010.

The Blue Dragons extended their team-record winning streak to 20 games on Friday night with a 7-1 opening-round victory over the Kansas City Blue Devils at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.

Improving to 46-11 overall, the Jayhawk West champion Blue Dragons will play either Johnson County or Dodge City in Saturday’s 7 p.m. winner’s bracket semifinal.

The Blue Dragons also snapped a two-game postseason losing streak to Kansas City, avenging last year’s opening-round loss to the Blue Devils.

Hoffman worked his fourth complete game of the season, his first nine-inning complete game, in a dominant performance. He allowed only an unearned run in the fifth inning and just four hits and no walks in the game. Hoffman struck out five. He threw 122 pitches, 81 were for strikes.

After allowing that run in the fifth, Hoffman retired 12 of the final 13 Blue Devils he faced in the game.

After leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, the Blue Dragons broke through in the third inning when Brady Hoover lined a bases-loaded two-run single in the third inning for a 2-0 lead.

One inning, later, freshman Bobby Morgensen made a bit of Blue Dragon history. With his two-out, two-run double that scored Shane Cooper and Michael Helman, Morgensen drove in his 85th and 86th RBIs for the season, which tied Hutch’s single-season record for RBIs.

Morgensen then scored on Nolan Hakel’s triple of left-center to make to 5-0 after four innings.

The Dragons tacked on two more runs in the seventh when Caden Doga singled through a drawn-in infield and Wyatt Divis had an RBI groundout.

The Blue Dragons had nine hits against the Blue Devils. Morgensen was 2 for 4 with two RBIs to lead Hutchinson. Hakel and Hoover also had two hits each. Hoover also drove in a pair of runs.