April 2015 – Page 3 – Welcome to Wyandotte Daily!

Sporting KC back home Sunday to meet Chicago Fire at Sporting Park

With two consecutive road matches in the books, Sporting Kansas City returns home to face the Chicago Fire at 4 p.m. on Sunday at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan., in a nationally televised match on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.

Tied for fifth place in the Western Conference (2-2-4, 10 points), Sporting KC will play host to Chicago as an intra-conference opponent for the first time since 2004.

Peter Vermes’ men have yet to lose at Sporting Park this season (1-0-3) and are unbeaten in four straight home games against the Fire. Midfielder Benny Feilhaber enters the match in a rich vein of form, leading MLS with five assists and recording his first MLS brace-including an MLS Goal of the Week nominee-in last Saturday’s 4-4 draw at the Houston Dynamo. First-year forward Krisztian is also on an uptick with three goals in the team’s last four matches.

Chicago (3-3-0, 9 points) missed out on the 2014 playoffs en route to an MLS record 18 draws last season and opened this year with three consecutive defeats.

Since then, however, Frank Yallop’s side has rattled off three straight home victories with two shutouts from U.S. international goalkeeper Sean Johnson.

Homegrown midfielder Harry Shipp, who earned an MLS Rookie of the Year nomination in 2014, leads the Fire with three assists, while first-year designated players Shaun Maloney and David Accam have both opened their scoring accounts.

Radio partners Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM will provide live broadcasts of the rivalry match. A limited number of tickets are available online at Ticketmaster.com, and the first 10,000 fans through the gates will receive Sporting KC rally towels.
– Story from Sporting KC

8th District commissioner holds Town Hall meeting

8th District Commissioner Jane Philbrook, right, organized a Town Hall meeting held Wednesday night at Eisenhower Community Center. Emerick Cross, commission liaison, was at the left. (Photo by Lou Braswell)

by Lou Braswell
The 8th District Town Hall meeting Wednesday night at Eisenhower Community Center was well attended, and information was presented about what was happening in the district.

Commissioner Jane Philbrook organized the meeting to cover almost every department of the Unified Government that serves the citizens, from animal control to Wyandotte County parks and rec.

Commissioner Melissa Bynum, newly elected 1st District al large commissioner, was also available to help with the presentation.

The format allowed the speakers each five minutes to tell the operations of their department, followed by a 7 minute question–and-answer period.

During the question-and-answer period, citizens presented a variety of questions.

An 8th District Town Hall meeting was held Wednesday night at Eisenhower Community Center. (Photo by Lou Braswell)

Greg Talkin of the Neighborhood Resource Center discussed codes, rental licensing and other topics at the 8th District Town Hall meeting Wednesday night at Eisenhower Community Center. (Photo by Lou Braswell)

Jeremy Rogers, new director of the Unified Government Parks and Rec Department, made a presentation Wednesday night at the 8th District Town Hall meeting at Eisenhower Community Center. (Photo by Lou Braswell)

Blue Devils take .355 batting average into playoffs Saturday

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Scoring runs has not been a problem for Kansas City Kansas Community College’s playoff bound Blue Devils this spring.

Averaging nearly eight runs a game, the Blue Devils (32-23) will take a collective .355 batting average into opening round NJCCC Region 6 playoff action against Butler County (27-27) at El Dorado Saturday.

A best-of-three series, two games will be played Saturday starting at 1 p.m. with a third game if necessary Sunday at 1 p.m. At stake is a berth in the 8-team regional to begin at Wichita May 8.

Eight of the Blue Devils’ nine position players will take batting averages of .322 or better into the playoffs.

“We have good offensive abilities and we want to maximize them,” said head coach Steve Burleson. “But the one thing that has riddled this team has been our recurring inability to hold leads. We’ve faced it and talked about it before it became a trend but we’ve not been able to overcome that trend.”

Jonathan May, a right-handed sophomore pitcher from LaPorte, Tex., will draw the opening assignment Saturday.

“He’s been our most consistent,” Burleson said. “He throws strikes and puts the ball in play giving our defense the opportunity to make plays.” The Blue Devil leader in wins at 6-3, May has a 4.50 ERA which is well under the combined staff ERA of 5.64.

Burleson is uncertain on the second starter, mostly likely either freshman Tyler Hull (5-1) of New Franklin, Mo., or sophomore southpaw Brandon Martinkus (5-2) of Shawnee Mission West.

Freshman third baseman Travis Stroup of Lee’s Summit West leads the Blue Devils in hitting (.402), RBI (61), home runs (4) and doubles (21).

Sophomore centerfielder Alex Thrower, who has an on-base percentage of over .500, is next at .390 with 17 stolen bases followed by shortstop Landon Mason, .382 with 45 RBI; first baseman Tanner Foerschler, .381 with three homers, 14 doubles and 51 RBI; and leftfielder El Lovell, .361, 10 doubles and 33 RBI.

Designated hitter Sam Baxter, who shares the home run lead with four, is sixth in hitting at .355 with 11 doubles and 39 RBI followed by second baseman Tyler Raymond (.355) and rightfielder Daniel LaMunyon, who is hitting .322 with 44 RBI and leads the Region VI in stolen bases with 31.

“He likes to steal bases and really works at it,” Burleson said. The starting catcher will be either freshman Malone Smith (.271) or Leavenworth sophomore Eli Keppler (.185).

While the Blue Devils have just 16 home runs, they have 106 doubles and 16 triples.

“Not a lot out of the park power with our big park but good gap power with a lot of doubles,” Burleson said.

Alan Hoskins is the sports information director for KCKCC.