by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s Blue Devils put themselves in position to make short work of the opening round of the Region VI baseball playoffs Friday.
Getting strong pitching performances from Jake Purl and Cameron Bednar and pounding out 13 hits, the Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series with a 13-3 win over Garden City that was ended in the bottom of the eighth inning by the 10-run rule.
Sophomore lefthander Shea Stephens closed out the series Saturday at 1 p.m
Purl (8-2) allowed just two hits over the first five innings and by the time Garden City scored a run on a couple of hits and a sacrifice fly in the sixth, the Blue Devils had a 9-0 lead. The Broncbusters literally knocked Purl out of the game in the seventh. After a single and a walk to start the inning, Purl took a line drive shot off his ankle by Billy Clark that loaded the bases.
Purl pitched to one more hitter, giving up a walk to force in a run, before Bednar came on with a flawless relief job. After getting out of the bases-loaded jam with only a sacrifice fly, Bednar pitched a hitless eighth. Purl struck out seven and walked four but his injured ankle needed treatment.
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils scored runs off all four Garden City pitchers they faced as the first four hitters in the lineup combined for 10 hits and 10 runs-batted-in. Leadoff hit L.A. Woodard drove in two runs with a double and triple and Tyler Pittman homered and singled and drove in two as each scored four times. Alex Phillips increased his team-leading RBI total to 71 with three RBI’s and three singles and Rorey Combs had three singles and two RBI. Brandon Green also drove in two runs with a home run and single.
“Purl and Bednar both threw well and the guys obviously came out swinging,” said KCKCC coach Matt Goldbeck. “It’s great to get out in front but we still need to win one more and Garden City is a good team.”
Pittman got the Blue Devils started with a blast over the 375-foot mark for a 1-0 lead in the first and the Blue Devils made it 4-0 in the second on a hit batsman and singles by Drew Holtgrieve, Pittman, Phillips and Combs. A walk, Pittman sacrifice and Phillips singles made it 5-0 in the fourth and the Blue Devils broke the game wide open with four runs in the fifth. After a pair of walks to start the inning, Woodard ripped a 2-out double to the fence in left-center for two runs and two more scored on a dropped fly ball and a Phillips’s single.
Green’s home run, a shot to left, started the seventh and the Blue Devils added two more runs on a triple by Woodard, an error and a single by Combs. KCKCC then ended it in the eighth when Josh Schumacher walked and scored all the way from first on a Green double to deep right center.
