Month: August 2019

Lady Blue Devils seek increased scoring in soccer opener Thursday

KCKCC women’s soccer leadership this fall, will come from sophomores, from left, Kayla Deaver, Jasmine Diaz, Ruth Nunez, Tina Alvarez, Abby Petersen, Karleigh Enyart, Alex Schemmel, Alee Alter, Sydney Guerra and Arlene Ruiz. (KCKCC photo by Alan Hoskins)


by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Last season, Kansas City Kansas Community College had one of the best defenses in the women’s division of the Jayhawk Conference.

“We were second right up until the last week of the season,” said fourth-year head coach Shawn Uhlenhake. “But we were also right near the bottom in goals scored.”

Uhlenhake hopes that can be rectified with a plethora of attackers who will open the season Thursday when the Blue Devils play host to State Fair Community College at 6 p.m. The Blue Devil men will also open their season Thursday against State Fair at 8 p.m.

“I think our strength will still be our defense but for once we have depth at forward,” Uhlenhake said. “We’ll have multiple players to throw at opposing defenses with hopes of finding the right combinations to give a big infusion to our offense.”

Sophomore Abby Petersen of Wichita South, who missed last season with a hip injury; and Kayla Deaver, a Lee’s Summit transfer from Central Methodist, are the most experienced of the forwards. They’ll be joined by promising freshmen Marissa Stratton and Madison Broeker, who were high school teammates at North Star High School in Lincoln, Nebraska; and Topeka recruits Jaidyn Yingling (Seaman) and Hannah Nystrom (West).

Returning starters Sydney Guerra of Perry, Iowa, and Alex Schemmel of DeSoto will anchor the defense along with sophomores Arlene Ruiz and Ruth Nunez, both of Liberal.

“We expect freshmen Katrina Sargent (Shawnee Mission South), Paige Liston (Bishop Carroll), Caroline Rutledge (Mill Valley) and Hailey Coates (Shawnee Mission Northwest) to compete for positions on the back line,” Uhlenhake said.

Guerra will be the captain of the Blue Devils. “She is very good at organizing the players in front of her, anticipates very well and is a great ball winner,” Uhlenhake said. The goalkeeping will be in the hands of Jaidyn Takaishi, a freshman from Olathe North.

Sophomores Karleigh Enyart of Olathe Northwest, Jasmine Diaz of DeSoto and Tina Alvarez of Seattle, Washington, will be joined at midfield by a quartet of promising freshmen including Kayley Pedersen of Shawnee Mission West, Corrine Hughes of Grain Valley, Bryanna Najera of Washington High School and Melisa Siegel of Endingen, Germany.

“Kayley Pedersen controls the ball very well at midfield and is able to transition our offense quickly and put our attackers in the best position to score,” Uhlenhake said.

The Blue Devils will open the season with three straight contests at home. Following Thursday’s opener against State Fair, the Blue Devils will play host to Iowa Central on Sunday, Sept. 1, before opening Jayhawk Conference play against perennial power Butler County Sept. 4.

“As is the case every year, we’ll have quite a few freshmen (14) but most of these freshmen have played at a pretty high level so the level of inexperience is not as pronounced as the last couple of years,” said Uhlenhake, who is again being assisted by Sara Matthews. “Our first conference game against Butler will be a really good early season test to see where we stand.”

Kansas City Kansas Community College

2019 Women’s Soccer Schedule

Thursday Aug. 22 STATE FAIR, Home 6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 1 IOWA CENTRAL, Home Noon
Wednesday, Sept. 4 BUTLER COUNTY, Home 6 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 7 Neosho County, Chanute 5 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 11 COWLEY COLLEGE, Home 5 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 14 Metropolitan, Blue River 11:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 18 Johnson County, Overland Park 5 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 21 ALLEN COUNTY, Home 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 25 Coffeyville, Coffeyville 5 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 28 Butler County, El Dorado 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 2 NEOSHO COUNTY, Home 5 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 5 Cowley College, Arkansas City 2 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 11 JOHNSON COUNTY, Home 2 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 16 Allen County, Iola 2 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 20 COFFEYVILLE, Home 2 p.m.

T-Bones’ winning streak snapped at 12

by Luke Schrock

The Kansas City T-Bones’ (47-38) bats went cold Monday night, allowing the Sioux City Explorers to creep back to a half game behind the T-Bones and give Kansas City its first shutout loss of the season, 5-0.

Christian Binford (4-3) got the loss after four innings pitched and a total of nine hits let up. Sioux City took Binford down the left field line twice to account for three runs in the bottom of the second.

Binford ended the night with a positive note of only throwing one walk, which was his 12th since signing with the T-Bones on June 16.

Winning pitcher Sam Held (2-0) for the Explorers threw his first start since last season after being a long reliever for Sioux City. The experiment worked well with Held’s final line being eight hits, no runs and six punchouts in five innings.

The T-Bones had 11 hits, almost tying Sioux City, which had 12. Kansas City had a total of 14 left on base with seven in the first three innings alone.

Sioux City was efficient with moving runners, using big hits to left field, going down the left field line, and singles to threaten the KCK defense. Six of the nine innings started with the lead-off man aboard with either a walk or a single.

The Explorers saw the ball out of Christian Binford’s hand in the second inning, giving Sebastian Zawada one RBI, Kyle Wren a 2-RBI double, and Nate Samson an RBI double.

Andrew DiPiazza got his professional debut, starting his first inning in the fifth by loading the bases with no outs, but he found a way to get three straight outs to end the threat. His next inning would be smooth, going three up, three down in the sixth. Smith and Korson slowed the Explorer offense by only letting in one run to keep Sioux City at five runs.

Kansas City continues to hold the second-place spot for another day, despite the loss. KC is now four games behind Cleburne in the playoff race, and the Explorers continue to nip at the heels of the T-Bones going into Tuesday’s rubber match. The game will be on the T-Bones Broadcast Network, http://mixlr.com/t-bones-baseball/.

Tickets to all T-Bones home games are on sale online or by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting the Saint Luke’s Box Office between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Group ticket sales are also on sale.

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