by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College got another pitching gem from Cole Gacke Thursday but it wasn’t enough to sweep a doubleheader at Highland.
Gacke allowed just two hits in a 12-1 win in a 6-inning opener but Highland tied the nightcap with three runs in the eighth inning and then won it with a run in the bottom of the 10th 10-9.
The two teams will close out their four-game series at KCKCC Saturday at 1 p.m. The split left the Blue Devils (15-12) tied with Johnson County for fifth place in the Jayhawk Conference at 7-7, a game behind both Neosho County and Allen County (8-6).
A 6-1 sophomore from Liberty North, Gacke struck out nine in running his season’s record to 4-1. Only four Scotties reached base against Gacke with the lone run scoring on his only walk, a wild pitch and a single in the fourth inning.
The Blue Devils backed him with 15 hits, 10 for extra base hits including nine doubles. Kevin Santiago led with a home run and two doubles; Adam North and Gavin Gifford each doubled twice; Brigham Mooney and Brandon Green doubled and singled; and Brandon Still doubled.
KCKCC jumped in front 1-0 in the first on a single by Mooney and then scored four more runs in the third. After a walk and Mooney double, Santiago scored both with a double and two more scored on a Green sacrifice fly and North’s two-out single.
The Blue Devils boosted their lead to 7-1 in the sixth on a single by Combs, double by Green and sacrifice flies by Gifford and Bradley. Santiago’s home run triggered a 5-run sixth inning that included doubles by Still, Gifford and North and singles by Green and James Bradley.
Wildness and errors, two season-long nemesis, foiled the Blue Devils in the 10-9 nightcap loss. Five of Highland’s six runs in the second inning were unearned because of two errors; two walks and two hit batsman figured prominently in the Scotties’ game-tying 3-run eighth; and the game-winning run was put on base by a walk.
The Blue Devils built a 9-6 lead on the strength of home runs from Jared Goodfellow and Santiago, his second of the day. Both had a pair of hits as did Still.
KCKCC also got a strong starting performance from freshman Orlando Oritz, who struck out a career high 12 in just six innings including eight of 10 Scotties in one stretch. However, he was also the victim of Highland’s 6-run second inning that included three hits, two walks and two costly errors that made five of the runs unearned.
The Blue Devils jumped in front 1-0 in the first on singles by Josh Schumacher and Mooney and a Santiago sacrifice fly and made it 3-0 in the second on a walk and Goodfellow’s 2-run home run only to fall behind 6-3. KCKCC started its comeback in the fifth, scoring a run on a single by Santiago and Still sacrifice fly and then went ahead with four runs in the seventh.
After a single by Goodfellow and a walk, Santiago put KCKCC ahead 7-6 with a 3-run home run. The Blue Devils added the fourth run in the inning on singles by Still and Green and added another in the eighth on an error, wild pitch and Mooney’s squeeze bunt.
Trailing 9-6 in the eighth, Highland loaded the bases against Allan Brown with one out on a walk, single and hit batsman and all scored against reliever Julian Rivera on a single, hit batsman and walk, the last one with two out.
Gunner Vestal pitched out of a bases-loaded situation in the ninth but gave up a pair of one-out walks and back-to-back singles in the 10th, the last the game-winner by Shane Drolet. It was his third hit of the game.