Before this year’s Al Ice Memorial Woodbat Classic, Lawrence Raiders coach Carl Brooks said playing small ball such as bunting would be crucial to winning games.

In Sunday’s seventh-place game, though, it was big ball two doubles and a triple that made the difference in the Raiders’ 5-2 victory over Dodge City’s Rangers.

With the score tied at 2 in the bottom of the sixth, Troy Wingert reached on an error. After Tommy Mangino popped up a sacrifice attempt, Wingert advanced on Derek Bailey’s double and scored the go-ahead run on a fielder’s choice by Aaron Madill.

The Raiders (14-9) added two more runs on a double by Dallas Worley and a triple to left field by Andrew Pyle.

“We tried to play small ball,” Brooks said, “and we popped up the sac bunt and I was really discouraged. But then Bailey doubled and then Dallas doubled and Andrew tripled.”

Blake Dickson finished off the Rangers in the top of the seventh. After a one-out walk, Nathan Herrera hit into a game ending double play.

Dickson struck out eight batters in seven innings and gave up just one hit, a soft single by Cody Staten in the fifth.

“Blake is capable of doing that,” Brooks said. “He can be overpowering at times. It’s whether or not he has command of the strike zone and can keep hitters off balance. He did a great job. We were a little afraid we weren’t going to score enough runs to a win for him, but we scratched around a little bit in the last inning and got some.”

Dickson walked two batters in both the first and second innings. He escaped the first unscathed, but allowed two runs both unearned in the second on an error by Bailey, the Raiders’ only fielding miscue.

“I didn’t seem to really have control in the first few innings,” Dickson said, “but once I settled down I started hitting my spots real well.”

Walks also hurt the Rangers in the second. Wingert drew a walk to begin the inning and, after singles by Mangino and Bailey, scored on a bases-loaded walk by Worley. Pyle then tied the game with a sacrifice fly.

The Raiders had a chance to untie the game in the fifth inning, loading the bases with a walk and two bunt singles with no outs. Brooks didn’t think about small ball at that point, though.

“All we had to do was hit a sacrifice fly or a base hit there are a lot of ways to score and if you squeeze in that situation they have a force play at the plate,” he said. “I really didn’t think about it.”

Lawrence ended up empty-handed as Mike Morrell popped out to second base and Matt Berner lined a rocket that third baseman Travis Hecke caught and stepped on third to double off Worley.

“It seemed like every baserunning situation that happened to us happened negatively today,” Brooks said. “We could have scored a lot more runs.”

In other games Sunday, Claremore (Okla.) defeated Arkansas City, 11-4, in the fifth-place game; Blue Valley defeated Ponca City (Okla.), 6-3, in one semifinal and Augusta defeated defending champion Tulsa (Okla.) Memorial, 2-1, in the other semi. Blue Valley defeated Augusta, , in the final.

Lawrence Raiders 5, Dodge City Rangers 2

Dodge City 020 000 0 – 2 1 1

Lawrence 020 003 x 5 7 1

WPBlake Dickson. LPTyler Konrade.

2BRaiders: Derek Bailey, Dallas Worley. 3BRaiders: Andrew Pyle.

Lawrence highlightsBailey, 2-for-2, 2B; Worley, 1-for-1, 2B, 2 BB, 2 RBIs, run; Pyle, 2-for-2, 3B, 2 RBIs.