by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Two innings proved pivotal as Cloud County swept a Jayhawk Conference softball doubleheader from Kansas City Kansas Community in Concordia Tuesday.
Cloud broke a 1-1 deadlock with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning for a 3-1 win in the opener and then scored seven times in the first inning of a 9-6 nightcap win. The losses dropped the Blue Devils to 10-12 heading into a home conference doubleheader with Labette Saturday at 2 p.m.
Trailing 1-0 in the fourth inning of the opener, the Blue Devils pulled even on a leadoff home run by Basehor-Linwood freshman Allison Kasick, her first of two on the day.
Held to just two hits over the first five innings by sophomore Megan Sumonja, the Thunderbirds went back in front 3-1 with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Both scored with two out on three singles after a leadoff single to start the inning. Cloud’s first run came in the second on two walks, hit batsman and a two-out single. Mikaela Hoffart had two of KCKCC’s five hits off Bayleigh Cope.
KCKCC matched Cloud with 12 hits in the nightcap but couldn’t overcome a 7-run first inning. Kasick again homered, her seventh of the year, and singled in a run; Grace Grosvenor rapped out a double and two singles; and Kaylynn Stratton singled twice.
The Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead in the first on a single by Stratton, wild pitch and Kasick’s single only to have he Thunderbirds combine seven hits and two errors for the seven runs, three of which were unearned. Megan Mason, who came on in relief of starter Shannon Greene, pitched five scoreless innings as the Blue Devils rallied to within a run at 7-6.
Singles by Grosvenor and Candice Jennings scored a run in the fourth; Kasick homered in the fifth; and the Blue Devils scored three runs in the sixth. KCKCC loaded the bases on a single by LaTisha Thomas, error and walk before Hoffart singled in one run and Grosvenor singled in two more. A 2-run double by Erin King in the bottom of the sixth re-opened Cloud’s lead to 9-6.