May 2021 – Page 29 – Welcome to Wyandotte Daily!

Sporting KC II travels west to meet LA tonight

Sporting Kansas City II (0-2-1, 1 point) will look to bounce back from last week’s home loss to Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC when it ventures west to meet LA Galaxy II (2-1-1, 7 points) on Wednesday night at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

The inter-conference clash will kick off at 9:30 p.m. and stream live on ESPN Plus. Fans can also follow @SportingKCII on Twitter for in-game updates.

After picking up its first point of the season in a 1-1 draw with OKC Energy FC on May 7, Sporting suffered a 4-0 setback at the hands of Switchbacks FC on Friday at Children’s Mercy Park.

Former Sporting KC II forward Hadji Barry struck twice against his former club to lead the visitors, who also received goals from Austin Dewing and Michee Ngalina to snap a four-game losing streak to SKC II in the USL Championship.

Under the guidance of fourth-year head coach and former Sporting great Paulo Nagamura, SKC II has featured a mix of USL Championship players, rising academy talents and MLS players on loan from the first team in the early stages of the 2021 season. Eighteen-year-old forward Tyler Freeman, an MLS Homegrown Player and a native of Overland Park, Kansas, bagged the club’s lone goal of the year in the hard-fought tie versus Energy FC off an assist from skillful winger Enoch Mushagalusa.

Freeman and fellow Sporting KC youngsters Grayson Barber, Ozzie Cisneros and Kayden Pierre have started all three games for SKC II thus far. Center back Matt Constant has three starts to his name as well, having signed for SKC II after linking up with Sporting via the 2021 MLS SuperDraft in January, but will serve a one-game red card suspension on Wednesday.

Led by head coach Junior Gonzalez, LA Galaxy II have enjoyed a strong start to the 2021 season with seven points from their first four matches. Jorge Hernandez, Kai Koreniuk and Preston Judd have bagged two goals apiece in league play, with the latter two players finding the back of the net in a 2-0 road triumph over Real Monarchs on Friday night. Judd notably signed for SKC II in January but was subsequently drafted by the LA Galaxy in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft and inked a contract with LA Galaxy II ahead of the USL Championship season.

Sporting KC II boasts a 5-0-1 all-time record against Galaxy II, including a momentous 3-0 win in the Western Conference quarterfinals of the 2016 USL Cup Playoffs at Swope Soccer Village. The sides haven’t met since Oct. 14, 2018, when SKC II stormed to a 5-1 win in a rainy regular season finale at Children’s Mercy Park.

Blue Devils take on Goliath in regional opener Thursday

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information

Kansas City Kansas Community College will be armed with a .320 batting average in its bid to take down the Goliath of Jayhawk Conference baseball in opening round play of the NJCAA Division I Regional tournament in Salina Thursday.

The Blue Devils open play at 4 p.m. against Cowley College, winner of the last four Jayhawk East championships and two of the last three regional titles.

Colby and Butler County will meet in Thursday’s first game with the two losing teams meeting at 7 p.m. All games are scheduled to be streamed on the KJCCC website at www.kjccc.org/.

KCKCC (30-18) will take a 5-game winning streak into the regional after sweeping the sub-regional in Liberal in just three games.

Ranked No. 5 nationally, Cowley won the Jayhawk East with a 27-5 record and is 43-8 overall. Thursday’s game will be the fifth between the two teams. The Blue Devils won the first game 5-2, dropped the final three 11-1, 11-8 and 4-0.

“This team has overcome a lot,” KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck said. “We were the No. 3 seed in the sub-regional and had the longest drive (six hours). We lost two guys we thought would hit in the middle of the lineup (Pablo Sanchez and Rayden Vader) the first week of the season due to injuries. And we were shut down two weeks by the COVID and had four pitchers miss time so I am very proud of what this team has overcome and achieved.”

Logan Barnard, a lefthander from Lansing who is unbeaten (4-0 ) with a 4.96 earned run average, will get the start against the Tigers.

“After that it will be game to game,” said Goldbeck, most likely from a trio of Chase Terrell (6-1) of Bonner Springs, Parker Weddle (4-4) of St. Joseph and southpaw Tre Simmons (5-1) of Olathe West.

Terrell, who has a 3.86 ERA, inherited a 6-0 deficit before pitching seven strong innings of relief in the 16-9 sub-regional win over Cloud; Simmons allowed just five hits in six innings in KCKCC’s 5-2 win over Cowley; and Waddle leads the team in complete games and strikeouts (74). Hunter Cashero is the closer, leading the team in saves (6), appearances (20) and ERA (2.93) despite only a 1-3 record.

The Blue Devils boast six players hitting .331 or better led by second baseman Cole Slibowski, who is hitting a hearty .417 with 25 RBI from the leadoff spot. First baseman Brendyn Bard of Piper is next at .375 followed by centerfielder Ray Paniagua of Blue Springs, 371; Lansing rightfielder Caleb Adams, 345; shortstop Cole Dawson, 337; and Hays third baseman Palmer Hutchison, 331.

Two of the Blue Devils rank in the top 10 nationally. Paniagua leads the nation in triples with 10 and is second on the team in RBI (50) and slugging percentage (.653); Hutchison is tied for seventh in home runs with 19 and leads the Blue Devils in RBI (61) and slugging (.717). Other RBI leaders are Adams (47), Dawson (43) and Bard (40). Adams leads in stolen bases with 25 followed by Slibowski and Dawson with 15 each.

Catcher Camden Karlin, of Lawrence, whose single drove in the winning run in a 12-11 win over Neosho Sunday, is hitting .266; leftfielder Beau Grable of St. James, .244; and designated hitter Brock Stewart of Gardner, 235.

Cowley, which has won 11 of its last 12 games, has a team batting average of .361 and scored 568 runs, an average of more than 11 runs a game. The Tigers have also blasted 61 home runs while the pitching staff has a 5.03 ERA.

Winning teams is nothing new for Cowley. Since 1995, the Tigers have won 20 of 26 East Division championships, nine regional championships and two national titles (1997-98). Most recently, Cowley finished sixth in the NJCAA in 2019; third in 2017.

Monarchs comeback falls short in season opener

Mayor David Alvey attended the inaugural Kansas City Monarchs game on Tuesday night at Legends Field and threw out the first pitch. (Photo by William Crum)

by William Crum

The Kansas City Monarchs made a strong showing with a comeback attempt in the season opener on Tuesday night at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas.

The Monarchs dropped the opener 7-5 to the Lincoln Saltdogs, after getting behind by six runs early in the game, then almost catching up with an eighth inning rally to bring the score to 6-5.

Right-fielder Gabriel Guerrero made a huge impression for the Monarchs’ first regular season game, with a soaring solo home run in the seventh inning, followed by a three-run home run in the eighth inning.

Guerrero, from Paradise Valley, Arizona, went three for four with four runs batted in.

Before Guerrero’s eighth-inning home run, Jan Hernandez hit a single, scoring Darnell Sweeney for the Monarchs.

Winning pitcher Kyle Kinman of the Lincoln Saltdogs shut down the Monarchs in the first five innings of the game. James Pugliese got the save. Eric Stout took the loss for the Monarchs.

The Saltdogs’ Ryan Long hit a home run in the top of the sixth, and the score was then 6-0. A double by the Saltdogs’ Forrest Allday in the top of the ninth inning gave Lincoln another run, bringing Justin Byrd home and making the score 7-5.

On hand for the season opener, and the first game for the team under its new ownership, were Mayor David Alvey, who threw out the first pitch; as well as Gov. Laura Kelly, Unified Government Commissioners Brian McKiernan and Melissa Bynum, Sen. Pat Pettey, Bonner Springs Mayor Jeff Harrington and Edwardsville Mayor John McTaggart.

Despite rain and thunder in the opening minutes of the game, 3,687 people attended the season opener.

The next Monarchs game is at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, against the Lincoln Saltdogs at Legends Field. For ticket information, see https://monarchsbaseball.com/.

Statistics for the game are online at http://baseball.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=553022.