BY JIM MISUNAS

jmisunas@gbtribune.com

When lefthanded reliever Koehn Ribordy struck out the side to preserve a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Garden City, Great Bend officially clinched back-to-back Western Athletic Conference baseball titles.

Great Bend (14-7, 9-3) secured its fifth consecutive victory by one or two runs after starting WAC play 0-2.

The Panthers won an outright WAC championship with a dominating 10-0 victory in the second game.

PANTHERS 2, GARDEN CITY 1 (G1) — Panther starter Daxton Minton (3-1, 2.52 ERA) struck out five batters. He's recorded 47 strikeouts in 36 innings. Ribordy earned a save in the seventh inning.

Garden City pitcher Steinmetz (1-1, 2.24 ERA) yielded no earned runs in four innings. The Panthers scored two unearned runs.

PANTHERS 10, GARDEN CITY 0 (G2) — Hard-throwing Jaxon Wondra (6-1, 2.50 ERA) and reliever Rafael Chavez combined to strike out 10 Buffaloes in five innings. Wondra has 55 strikeouts in 361/3 innings.

Garden City 001 000 0 — 1

Great Bend 000 000 x — 2

Steinmetz, Ortiz (5) and Culden Plankenhorn. Minton, Ribordy (7) and Jaxson Wondra. W—Minton 3-1. L—Steinmetz, 1-1.

Garden City 000 00 — 0 2 4

Great Bend 402 4x — 10 8 1

Ryder Plankenhorn, Culden Plankenhorn (4) and Proffitt. Jaxon Wondra, Chavez (4) and Trenton Kern. W—Minton 3-1. L—Plankenhorn, 1-1.

WAC BASEBALL

Great Bend 9-3 14-7

Hays High 7-4 7-10

Dodge City 5-6 9-10

Garden City 5-7 10-12

Liberal 2-8 9-15

5-5—Great Bend 2-10, Garden City 1-0; Dodge City 10-12, Liberal 6-6

5-8—Manhattan at Hays; Wichita West at Garden City; Dodge City at Andover

5-9—Great Bend at McPherson; Dodge City at Rock Creek