by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Highland Community College lived up to its No. 7 NJCAA Division II national ranking and then some Tuesday, scoring 24 runs in a sweep of Kansas City Kansas Community College in opening Jayhawk Conference play.
An 18-0 winner in just five innings in the opener, the Lady Scotties (11-3) stretched their winning streak to 10 in a row by completing a sweep with a 6-1 win in the nightcap.
The losses dropped the Blue Devils to 8-4 heading into a doubleheader against North Central Missouri in Trenton Thursday before returning home to host a University of Missouri club team Saturday and a University of Kansas club team Sunday. Both doubleheaders will start at noon.
“We had our chances in the second game but just couldn’t come through,” said KCKCC coach Kacy Tillery. “I was disappointed with our lack of energy and focus in the first game. Obviously, we did not come to play. We started the game with an error and a walk and it just went downhill from there. You can’t give away outs and free passes.”
The Blue Devils put the leadoff hitter on base in three of the first five innings in the nightcap but could not score until the sixth Allison Kasick and Candice Jennings singled and Kahterina Stringer doubled with two out. Stratton, Hall and Amy-Grace Wilson had the other KCKCC hits.
Highland took a 1-0 lead in the second on a walk, stolen base and single and then added single runs in the fourth on a leadoff home run and in the fifth on a leadoff triple off Shannon Greene, who gave up six runs on 10 hits.
KCKCC managed only two hits, a triple by Kaylynn Stratton and a single by Taylor Hall, off Highland’s Kennadi Barron in the opener. Barron struck out six and walked two while the Scotties backed her with 20 hits including a pair of home runs.