by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s late-inning magjc ran out in an opening game 4-3 loss at Independence Thursday but the Blue Devils were up to their usual late heroics in a 12-10 win in the nightcap.
The Blue Devils and Pirates were right back at it today in a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader moved up a day from its originally scheduled Saturday doubleheader.
Deadlocked 2-2 in the top of the ninth inning of the opener, the Blue Devils went ahead 3-2 on Albert Woodard’s 2-out single following a hit batsman and a walk only to have Indy rally in the ninth with three straight hits, the last a two-run game-winning double by Brock Zanca with no outs.
The Blue Devils were limited to just six hits. Gatlin Watson worked the first eight innings, allowing five hits, one earned run and striking out nine.
“Their pitcher was really tough on us but we still had a chance to win with a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth,” said KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck. “We hit a line drive to third that could have scored two runs and gave us some breathing room but Indy is a good, scrappy team.”
KCKCC took a 1-0 lead in the first on Eli Lovell’s two-out triple following a walk and then got a second run in the fourth on a Travis Stroup double and an outfield error. Stroup also singled, the only Blue Devil with more than one hit. Dustin Eby allowed eight hits and two runs in six innings and Avery Fliger had two scoreless innings before Tanner Vestal was tagged with the loss in the ninth.
The Blue Devils had to choke off a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the seventh of the nightcap. The Pirates scored one run and had the bases loaded before Chad Cox ended the game by getting a popup to shortstop. Cox gave up three hits and one run in two innings of relief of Dustin Eby,
Conor Behrens had three doubles, Lovell a home run and double, Stroup a triple and a double and Ryan Fisher two singles in a 13-hit attack although the biggest blow was a 2-out, 3-run double by Zach Mahoney in the third inning after Lovell had homer to lead off the second.
The Blue Devils followed with back-to-back four-run innings. Behrens and Lovell had doubles and Fisher a 2-run single in the fourth while Chase Redick and Drew Holtgrieve had singles and Stroup tripled in the fifth.