by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
No late inning heroics were needed Monday as Kansas City Kansas Community College pounded out 20 hits in a 19-6 win over Rockhurst JV.
The win, the Blue Devils’ 14th in 17 starts, sets up one of the biggest series of the Jayhawk Conference season starting Thursday when KCKCC plays at No. 4 ranked Cowley County in Arkansas City at 1 p.m. The two teams then meet again Saturday at KCKCC, again at 1 p.m. Both teams are 3-1 in Jayhawk play, the Blue Devils taking three of four games from No. 14 ranked Johnson County.
Led by Travis Stroup, five Blue Devils combined for 16 hits against Rockhurst. Stroup had two doubles and two triples and drove in four runs while Eli Lovell drove in three runs with a single, double and triple. Ryan Fisher added two singles and a triple and Ty Bradshaw and Albert Woodard two singles and a double.
The Blue Devils also hammered two home runs, one by Chase Redick leading off the game and Levi Froud had a solo shot in the seventh. Colton Kenagy worked the first 2.1 innings, giving up three hits and five runs. Cameron Bednar followed with 3.2 innings, allowing four hits and one run before Ryker Johnson, Gunner Vestal and Elijah Baig each pitched one inning of hitless relief.
Stroup’s first triple came in a 5-run first that also included singles by Woodard, Lovell and Fisher and he and Lovell lashed back-to-back three baggers in the second, Lovell scoring the second run of the inning on Drew Holtgrieve’s single.
Woodard and Stroup each had two-run doubles in a 4-run third that also included singles by Daulton Smith and Bradshaw; Stroup and Bradshaw had doubles and Zach Mahoney singled in a 5-run fifth; and Lovell doubled and Fisher singled in a 2-run eight.
Alan Hoskins is the sports information director at KCKCC.