Month: April 2017

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Pitchers stepped front and center in leading Kansas City Kansas Community College to a Jayhawk Conference softball sweep of Coffeyville Friday.

Megan Sumonja scattered eight hits in a 5-1 opening game while Megan Mason registered her first shutout with a 6-hit performance in a 4-0 nightcap win.

The sweep evened the Blue Devils’ record at 12-12 heading into a home doubleheader against Labette Saturday at 2 p.m.

Sumonja, a sophomore from Lawrence, might have had a shutout were it not for a wild pitch following a pair of singles in the first inning. Coffeyville put two runners on in the second but no more than one an inning the final five against Sumonja, who struck out five and walked one.

The Blue Devils backed her with 14 hits including three each by Hannah Bishop and Candice Jennings and two apiece by Kaylynn Stratton and LaTisha Thomas while Mikaela Hoffart and Amy-Grace Wilson accounted for four runs with two RBI each.

KCKCC bunched five singles in the first to take a 2-0 lead. Stratton, Bishop and Kasick started the game with singles and Jennings and Katherine Stringer closed out the inning with hits. The Blue Devils then put the game out of reach with three runs in the fifth. After singles by Stratton and Bishop and a walk loaded the bases, Hoffart’s sacrifice fly scored one run and Wilson singled in two more.

A sophomore from Belton, Mo., Mason allowed more than one base runner in only the second and seventh innings in her 4-0 whitewashing in the second game. She struck out two and walked two in the 6-hitter.

Hoffart and Wilson also had two RBI games in the nightcap. A one-out triple by Bishop and a Hoffart single gave the Blue Devils the only run they needed in the first. They added two more in the third on Wilson’s 2-run double after loading the bases on singles by Stratton and Kasick sandwiched around a walk. A double by Kasick and Hoffart’s single scored the final run in the fifth.

Bishop, Kasick, Hoffart and LaTisha Thomas all had two hits and Stringer doubled in a 12-hit attack in the nightcap although the Blue Devils left runners on base in six innings.

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Held to just two hits in an opening 2-1 loss to Highland, Kansas City Kansas Community College rebounded with a 3-hit pitching effort by Chad Cox for a 7-2 second game win Friday.

The split left the Blue Devils (11-7) in fifth place in the Jayhawk Conference a game behind three teams, Allen County, Johnson County and Cowley, all 12-6. Fort Scott is alone in first at 14-4. Back in action Saturday at Highland, the Blue Devils (21-12 overall) are back home again Thursday against Allen County.

Cox, who allowed only one hit over the first eight innings, struck out five and walked four in going the 9-inning route in the second game.

A sophomore righthander from Maumelle, Ark., Cox retired the Scotties in order in five of the nine innings and allowed as many as two runners in only two innings. The three hits he allowed all figured in the scoring, a single and two ground balls in the third and a walk and two singles in the ninth.

The Blue Devils backed Cox with a 14-hit attack including four singles by Alex Phillips, a double and single by Chase Redick and two singles each by Albert Woodard and Drew Holtgrieve.

KCKCC scored in every other inning starting in the first on a Phillips’ RBI single following a walk and Tyler Pittman’s sacrifice bunt. After Highland pulled even in the third, Phillips singled and Redick doubled to put the Blue Devils ahead 2-1. Phillips singled in another run in the fifth following a Woodard single and a ground ball and KCKCC put the game out of reach with three runs in the seventh.

After loading the bases on a walk and singles by Pittman and Phillips, Brandon Green scored one run on a sacrifice fly and Easton Fortuna doubled in two more. KCKCC’s final run in the eighth came on a Woodard single.

Jake Purl allowed just four singles in the 7-inning opener, striking out 10 and walking two only to be the victim of two costly errors. Highland took a 1-0 lead in the first on a leadoff error and two singles and then made it 2-0 in the third on a single, walk and a miscue.

KCKCC finally broke through against Highland starter Codoy Rottinghaus in the fifth, scoring on a walk to Rorey Combs, a double by Redick and Brandon Green’s ground ball. But a second run was taken away when Josh Schumacher’s bunt accidentally hit the bat. KCKCC’s only other hit was a single by Phillips in the fourth.