Month: March 2020

Crowder boosts record to 19-1 in softball sweep of KCKCC

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Kansas City Kansas Community College ran into a softball buzz saw at Crowder College in Neosho, Missouri, Tuesday.

Held to just four hits, the Blue Devils dropped 10-2 and 12-1 decisions and fell to 5-3 heading into another difficult test Friday when they play host to No. 9 ranked Kirkwood in a 2-4 p.m. doubleheader.

Crowder, meanwhile, stretched its winning streak to 13 in a row and improved its record to 19-1. The Roughriders are currently ranked 17th in the most recent NJCAA DI national rankings.

Devin Purcell and Abby Henson had the only Blue Devil hits in the 10-2 opener as Crowder’s Bailey Buffington struck out 11 and allowed no earned runs. The Roughriders backed her with 14 hits, seven for extra bases. Leading 2-0, Crowder broke the game open with five runs in the third off Shay Grosstephan and closed it out with three runs off Nerida Elson in the sixth.

Bradi Basler and Jennica Messer each doubled in the Blue Devils’ 12-1 loss in the 5-inning second game. Crowder scored in every inning in support of Sydney Ward, who struck out four and walked one in four innings. Basler took the pitching loss.

The games were the first between the two teams this season. They’ll meet again at KCKCC Tuesday, April 14.

Benefit pancake breakfast Sunday, March 15, in honor of heroic crossing guard

UPDATE: This event has been canceled.

A benefit pancake breakfast in honor of a heroic crossing guard is planned from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday, March 15, at Christ the King Catholic Church, Davern Hall, 53rd and Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, Kansas.

The funds raised at the Knights of Columbus pancake breakfast will go to a scholarship fund at Christ the King School in memory of Bob Nill, a crossing guard who was killed while on duty in a traffic accident Feb. 18. He is credited with saving the lives of two schoolchildren.

His family also recently set up a GoFundMe account to help with the scholarship fund at https://www.gofundme.com/f/BobNillKCKMemorial?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=p_nacp%20share-sheet&rcid=d6bc83dc65f0414893f5ebaa6920877a&fbclid=IwAR3Y8ApZKYJaco7CJf7zweWfUWcaESPDFUJSMhCASW6k3CMSg2fdn3YtxZ4.