by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
If it is true that a baseball team is only as good as its pitching staff, then it’s no surprise Kansas City Kansas Community College has won 25 of its last 27 games.
Six Blue Devil pitchers combined to allow Metropolitan-Maple Woods to just three runs and six hits as they led KCKCC to 5-1 and 8-2 wins Tuesday. Originally scheduled for Maple Woods, the games were moved to KCKCC’s all-weather infield with the Blue Devils the visiting team.
The wins boosted KCKCC’s overall record to 25-7 heading into a Jayhawk Conference doubleheader at Neosho County Thursday. The two teams then return to KCKCC Saturday for a 1 p.m. start.
“Our pitchers were really good today,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said. “We needed it. We were a little low in energy in the first game coming off the emotional and tough wins on Sunday.”
Matt Fred, Jose Amaro and Max Storch teamed to give up four hits and no earned runs in the 4-1 opener. Fred allowed three hits, struck out seven and walked two in four scoreless innings.
The lone Maple Woods’ run came on a two-out outfield error against Amaro in the seventh. Amaro struck out four and walked two in 2 2/3 innings before Storch came on for the final out.
“Matt Fred was solid mixing up his pitches,” Goldbeck said. “He ran into trouble in the fifth and Amaro was excellent in getting out of the jam with us still in the lead 1-0.”
Eric Hinostroza and Traice Hartter each had three hits and J.T. Goodfellow two in an 11-hit Blue Devil attack. KCKCC took a 1-0 lead in the third on a walk and back-to-back singles by Hartter and Hinostroza.
Trey Hoover stretched the lead to 3-0 in the sixth with a two-run double following a walk and Kemper Bednar bunt single. The final two runs came in the seventh on a single by Hartter, triple by Hinostroza and single by J.T. Goodfellow.
Jake Martin had a no-hitter in his four innings as starter in the 8-2 second game win. He struck out five and walked two. Zavier Morin was touched for two runs in the fifth on a walk, single, balk and double before he retired the final four hitters he faced, two on strikeouts. Hunter Paxton faced just three hitters in a scoreless seventh.
“Martin was excellent with a no-hitter through four,” said Goldbeck, who had the unenviable job of pulling a pitcher who had not allowed a hit. “His pitch count was up and we wanted to get some other guys in. Morin and Paxton also pitched well. Morin had a strikeout to end the fifth inning with no runs but had the strikeout overturned by a balk.”
Kevin Santiago and Trey Hoover swung the big bats in the second game. Santiago homered, doubled twice and singled and drove in three runs; Hoover drove in a pair of runs with a home run and double.
Eduardo Acosta, who had a pair of hits, triggered a two-run first inning with a leadoff single. He scored on the first of Santiago’s two doubles and Goodfellow made it a 2-0 with a run-scoring single.
Michael Edgar’s squeeze bunt scored a third KCKCC run in the third before the Blue Devils scored twice in both the fifth and sixth innings.
Singles by Santiago and Griffin Everitt scored the first run in the fifth and Hoover doubled in the second. Santiago’s two-run home run following an Acosta single made it 7-2 in the sixth and Hoover closed out the scoring with a solo homer to left-center in the seventh.
“The top of the lineup was outstanding in both games led by Hinostroza in the first game and Santiago in the second,” Goldbeck said.
