Lake stocked with trout in preparation for opening day Saturday
Month: March 2020
Blue Devil rally sets up sweep of No. 3 Cowley
by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College got a great start to the 2020 Jayhawk Conference baseball season Thursday, sweeping a doubleheader from No. 3 ranked Cowley College.
Trailing 5-1, the Blue Devils came from behind for a 6-5 win in the 7-inning opener, then had to beat the setting sun in a 14-8 9-inning win in the nightcap. The sweep of the defending Jayhawk East champions improved KCKCC’s record to 12-3 heading into a return doubleheader with the Tigers Saturday in Arkansas City.
Home runs by freshmen Caleb Adams and Seth Kenagy started the Blue Devils on their comeback in the 6-5 opener. Held to just three hits over the first four innings by southpaw Adam Stephenson, the Blue Devils exploded for three runs in the fifth and then took advantage of Cowley wildness to score the tying and winning runs in the sixth.
An outfielder from Lansing, Adams started the rally with a towering 400-foot home run to center and after a ringing double by Raymond Paniagua, Kenagy homered to almost the same spot in center to cut the deficit to 5-4.
A wild pitch on a third strike and back-to-back walks loaded the bases with none out in the sixth. Freshman Palmer Hutchinson tied it with a single into left field and a passed ball scored what proved to be the winning run.
Sophomore lefthander Osvaldo Mendez went the distance for the win, stranding the tying run on third with two out in the seventh.
Mendez scattered 11 hits while striking out five and walking two. The Tigers’ big blow was a 3-run home run by Gus Freeman in the fourth inning that broke a 1-1 tie. Cowley took a 1-0 lead on an unearned run in the first but KCKCC quickly tied it on a double by Griffin Everitt and a single by Eduardo Acosta.
Kenagy and Adams also homered in the second game and Jose Sosa drove in runs in four consecutive innings to lead the Blue Devils in the 14-8 second game.
The Blue Devils lashed out 16 hits including eight for extra bases. Sosa finished with two doubles and a single and five RBI. Paniagua also had three hits, a triple and two singles while Acosta tripled and singled, Everitt doubled and singled twice; and Trey Hoover doubled.
The Blue Devils had a chance to end the game early as they used a pair of 4-run innings to build a 12-1 lead after five innings only to have Cowley score in each of the final four innings as darkness threatened to push the final inning to Ark City Saturday.
“We had guys asking if they needed to make outs on purpose so we could get the game in and not have to finish at Cowley,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said.
KCKCC took a 2-0 lead in the first on Sosa’s 2-out, 2-run double and the Blue Devils scored four runs in both the third and fourth innings. After a single by Everitt, Acosta tripled for one run, Sosa and Hoover each doubled in a run and Paniagua singled in the fourth run in the third.
Kenagy led off the fourth with his second home run of the day; Everitt and Sosa both doubled and Hutchinson and Adams singled in the four-run uprising. Kenagy’s second hit was the only hit in a 2-run fifth while Adams homered and Paniagua tripled in a 2-run eighth.
Gaby Ramos held Cowley to just four hits and one run over the first five innings before leaving after giving up two runs in the sixth.
He allowed seven hits while striking out four and walking one. Parker Weddle gave up three hits and three runs (one earned) in 1 2/3 innings before Chase Terrell finished up, allowing three hits and two runs in the rush to finish before dark.
Sporting home opener Saturday against Houston in KCK
Sporting Kansas City (1-0-0, 3 points) will kick off the club’s 10th home campaign at world-class Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday, playing host to rivals Houston Dynamo (0-0-1, 1 point) in a long-awaited Western Conference showdown at 7:30 p.m.
A limited number of tickets for the match, including standing-room only tickets, are available at SeatGeek.com as manager Peter Vermes’ men return for their first home fixture in over five months.
FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX Sports Midwest Plus and FOX Sports GO will provide three hours of live coverage on Saturday beginning at 7 p.m., and listeners can also catch the action locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM, while viewers beyond the FOX Sports Midwest footprint can stream the contest on ESPN Plus.
Supporters are encouraged to arrive early on Saturday and the first 10,000 fans through the stadium gates will receive a free rally towel. Sporting KC schedule magnets will also be available upon exit at the end of the night.
Sporting raced to an impressive 3-1 road victory over Vancouver Whitecaps FC last weekend in Week 1. Marquee newcomers Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda both scored first-half goals on their MLS debuts and are now set for their maiden appearances at Children’s Mercy Park.
Fellow MLS debutant Roberto Puncec partnered Sporting captain Matt Besler in central defense against Vancouver and was also involved in a scoring play, assisting Pulido with a cushioned header.
Pulido buried a pinpoint header and Kinda — an MLS Team of the Week selection — sunk a curler that was nominated for MLS Goal of the Week.
With Sporting up 2-1 deep into second-half stoppage time, substitutes Gerso Fernandes as Erik Hurtado combined for a goal that put the game out of reach, with Gerso pirouetting around a defender and serving a ball for Hurtado to volley home emphatically.
The Dynamo were unable to get off to a winning start last Saturday but managed to avoid defeat in a 1-1 home draw with the LA Galaxy at BBVA Compass Stadium. Cristian Pavon fired the visitors ahead in the first half on a right-footed strike, but Houston forward Mauro Manotas restored parity after halftime. Manotas, who has seven goals in eight competitive appearances against Sporting, has amassed 49 goals in 130 career MLS matches over the last five years.
Vermes is the longest-tenured head coach in MLS and the league’s only coach to spend a dozen consecutive seasons with the same team.
He will coach his 350th regular season match on Saturday — becoming the fifth MLS manager to do so — and will reach the milestone against a friend and former teammate who enters his first year in charge of Houston.
Tab Ramos, who served as the United States U-20 head coach from 2011-2019, has jumped to MLS with intentions of leading Houston to the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017.
Vermes and Ramos, both 53 years old, were teammates on four different teams during their playing days: the U.S. Men’s National Team, the New Jersey Eagles, Spanish side Figueres and the New York-New Jersey MetroStars of MLS.
No opponent has faced Sporting more frequently since 2011 than the Dynamo. The clubs have squared off on 32 occasions over the last 10 seasons, with Sporting collecting 12 wins, 10 ties and 10 losses in those games.
Vermes’ side is 3-0-2 in the last five regular season meetings, posting three shutouts during that stretch, and has won each of the last two at Children’s Mercy Park — including a 1-0 decision last August that saw Scottish winger Johnny Russell dispatch a first-half header. Sporting also boasts a 14-3-7 all-time record in home openers and has just one loss in nine previous openers at Children’s Mercy Park.
Both teams are seeking strong starts to 2020 after missing the postseason last year. Sporting made eight consecutive playoff appearances from 2011 to 2018, the fourth-longest streak in MLS history, but an injury-riddled 2019 campaign brought that run to an end. Houston, meanwhile, began last season with a 6-1-1 record before slumping the rest of the way, going 6-17-3 from mid-May onward.
- Story from Sporting KC