by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s Blue Devils pounded out 29 hits in two games Friday but still had to settle for a split with Independence.
KCKCC collected 16 hits in an opening 7-inning 10-5 win but 13 hits in the 9-inning nightcap weren’t enough as the Pirates won an 8-5 decision.
The split dropped the Blue Devils (10-6) into fourth in the Jayhawk East behind Cowley (11-3), Allen County (12-4) and Neosho County (10-4) heading into a non-conference game at Saint Mary JV Tuesday at 2.m. KCKCC returns to Jayhawk play Thursday with a home twin bill with Labette.
Travis Stroup lashed out two doubles and two singles, Ryan Fisher doubled and singled and Eli Lovell and Malone Smith each singled twice in the 10-5 opener. Chase Redick homered to start the game for the Blue Devils and they added two more runs on a double by Zach Mahoney, a single by Smith and Albert Woodard’s squeeze bunt in the second.
The first of two home runs by Jordan Payne helped Indy get even in the third but the Blue Devils went ahead to stay 5-3 in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back singles by Stroup, Lovell and Fisher and an outfield error. Fisher’s 2-run double following singles by Stroup and Lovell made it 7-4 in the fourth and the KCKCC put the game out of reach with three runs. After a single by Conor Behrens and a double by Stroup, Lovell singled in both and scored on Malone’s single. Jake Purl went the 7-inning route for the win, giving up seven hits and walking six.
Independence never trailed in the 8-5 nightcap, scoring three times in the first on a 2-run triple by Brock Zanca and a ground ball and then opened the lead to 7-2 with a four-run sixth inning. Cameron Bednar took the loss, giving up six hits and seven runs in five innings. Vestal pitched the final three innings, allowing one hit and no runs.
Drew Holtgrieve led KCKCC with a run-scoring triple in the fourth and two singles while Stroup, Behrens and Woodard each had two hits. The Blue Devils scored single runs in five straight innings but left the bases loaded in the fifth and sixth and two on in the seventh. Stroup doubled and scored on a Lovell double in the fifth; Holtrgieve, Woodard and Redick bunched singles in the sixth; a walk and Holtgrieve’s third hit led to a run in the seventh; and Stroup and Lovell rapped back-to-back doubles in the eighth.