by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Fired by the top of the batting order, Kansas City Kansas Community College used two big innings to cruise to a 14-6 win over Neosho County in opening round NJCAA Central District playoff action at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita Friday night.
The win advances KCKCC (34-24) into the second round against Cowley College Saturday at 7 p.m.
The 2018 Jayhawk East champion and defending Central District winner, Cowley (43-9) opened with a 6-1 win over Hutchinson Friday.
The game, which will be streamed on the NJCAA website, matches two teams on winning streaks.
Cowley has won six in a row and 24 of 25 while KCKCC has won four straight since being swept by the Tigers in the final four-game series of the season. A win would move KCKCC into a third-round game Sunday at 4 p.m.; a loss would drop the Blue Devils into a loser’s bracket game at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Neosho came into Friday’s game with three straight wins over KCKCC but the Blue Devils never trailed thanks to seven runs in the second inning and four more in the fifth. It was the third straight playoff win in which the Blue Devils scored 10 or more runs.
The top two hitters in the KCKCC lineup accounted for half the Blue Devil runs. Leadoff hitter Josh Schumacher had two doubles and two singles and drove in three runs; Tyler Pittman drove in four runs, three on a game-breaking home run in the second inning.
“Schu really set the stage with four hits and Pittman’s home run in the second was huge,” KCKCC head coach Matt Goldbeck said.
Gavin Gifford also homered and doubled in a run; Adam North and Brigham Mooney tripled and singled; and Kevin Santiago and Kemper Bednar each singled twice.
Cole Gacke (10-2) got his 10th win of the season although giving up a season high 11 hits and five runs. He struck out five and walked two in five innings.
Allan Brown and Julian Rivera finished up with one inning apiece. Neosho actually had a 15-14 edge in hits but Blue Devil hurlers left a dozen Panthers stranded on base.
“A good job by the offense to keep scoring runs,” Goldbeck said. “Neosho swung the bats well but after our big second inning we kept answering when they scored. A nice team effort.”
KCKCC took a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning. Schumacher led off with a double and scored on ground balls by Pittman and Rorey Combs. Neosho started the game with three straight hits to tie it 1-1 but Gacke pitched out of the inning thanks to a big throw from Combs in rightfield and then blanked the Panthers the next three innings.
The Blue Devils pounded out seven hits and sent 12 hitters to the plate in the 7-run second inning, A single by Santiago and a Gifford double broke the 1-1 tie; Mooney and Schumacher delivered run-scoring singles; and both scored on Pittman’s 3-run home run to left center. KCKCC added a seventh run on singles by Still and Santiago.
KCKCC made it 12-1 with four more runs in the fifth on just two hits, RBI singles by Bednar and Schuimacher. The Blue Devils were aided by two walks and two hit batsmen.
The Panthers finally broke through against Gacke in the bottom of the fifth, scoring four times on three singles and a double and added a single run against Brown in the sixth, scoring on a walk and two singles before the Blue Devils choked off a budding rally with a key double play.
Gifford’s lead-off home run and Schumacher’s RBI single following Mooney’s 2-out triple in the sixth were enough for the Blue Devils to end it after seven innings because of the 8-run rule after seven.
In other first round games Friday, Barton County blanked Johnson County 8-0 in seven innings while Seward County was shutting out Colby 10-0.