Picture courtesy of Tanner Colvin

FINAL: 

GREAT BEND 5

CENTRAL 1

Salina Central’s hopes at ending the 2026 season with a state title came to a close on Tuesday night.

The Mustangs earned the No. 1 seed in Class 5A by compiling a program-record 26 wins with just two losses.

But, 8 seed Great Bend came in 17-10 with plans of making it back to Wichita for another state championship game.

A packed house at Dean Evans Stadium watched the Mustangs get off to a perfect start. Bodie Rodriguez pitched a 1-2-3 1st inning and Oscar Perez doubled to score Keaton Smith and put Central on top 1-0.

After both teams went scoreless in the 2nd inning, Great Bend searched for its first baserunner in the 3rd.

Gavin Wondra worked a two-out walk and was the first baserunner for the Panthers. It seemed harmless, but adding an error on top of it suddenly sparked a Great Bend rally.

Chance Hogan missed a throw to first base after a high-bouncing ground ball was hit to him by Daxton Minton, a few pitches later the script was flipped.

Great Bend took a 2-1 lead after a base hit by Koehn Ribordy. Trenton Kern made the error hurt even more with another RBI knock to make it 3-1.

Rafeal Chavez then hit a groundball to short that looked like it would end the inning, but Griffin Hall threw the ball into the outfield, allowing another run to score. Shockingly, the Mustangs allowed four unearned runs and trailed 4-1 after the 3rd inning.

Bodie Rodriguez was able to keep Central in the game after pitching three scoreless innings to follow, but Daxton Minton was just as good for Great Bend.

The Mustangs loaded the bases with less than two outs twice against Minton and came up empty both times. The momentum shift from the infield errors in the 3rd inning never swung back in the Mustang’s favor as they couldn’t find the big hit.

Still trailing 4-1, another throwing error started the 7th inning for Central. After a sacrifice bunt moved the runner over, Daxton Minton grabbed his bat and singled to right field, extending the lead to 5-1.

Central went quietly in the bottom of the 7th as Great Bend punched its ticket to the 5A state semifinals.

Tuesday’s loss brought an end to the careers of eight seniors who each played a significant role in shaping Salina Central’s program: Keaton Smith, Grayton Gross, Bodie Rodriguez, Parker Graves, Chance Hogan, Terence Tatro, Henry Tibbits and Oscar Perez.