by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Kansas City Kansas Community College twice rallied from four-run deficits but couldn’t get a third comeback and fell to No. 8 ranked Cowley County 12-4 in second round NJCAA Central Division playoff action at Wichita’s Lawrence-Dumont Stadium Saturday night.
The loss, which ended a four-game winning streak, sends the Blue Devils (34-25) into the loser’s bracket against Johnson County (27-22) Sunday at 1 p.m. with the winner advancing to a 7 p.m. contest against the winner of the Hutchinson-Seward County game. The games can be seen on the KJCCC website.
The win for Cowley was the 11th in a row and 24th in the last 25 games for the Tigers (44-9), who ran away with this year’s Jayhawk championship with a 32-4 record and are the defending Central Division champions. Cowley will face Jayhawk West champion Barton County, a 7-5 winner over Seward County, in the winner’s bracket Sunday.
Cowley, which came into Saturday’s game with a team batting average of .348, rapped out 11 hits and scored in five of seven innings against five Blue Devil pitchers. Meanwhile, unbeaten Ryan Westeroff (7-0) and three relievers were holding KCKCC to just six hits.
Trailing 4-0 after two innings, the Blue Devils cut the deficit in half in the fourth inning on Tyler Pittman’s two-run home run to left-center. Josh Schumacher, who had half of the Blue Devil hits with a double and two singles, led off the inning with KCKCC’s first hit of Westeroff.
Cowley rebuilt its lead to 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth, scoring twice on a single and three walks in kayoing KCKCC starter Orlando Ortiz. KCKCC again got back to within two runs at 6-4, scoring twice in the sixth on a double by Schumacher, wild pitch, a single by Brandon Still that knocked Westeroff out of the game and Kevin Santiago’s run-scoring ground ball.
However, any Blue Devil hopes of another comeback were crushed by a four-run Cowley uprising in the sixth that ballooned the lead to 10-4. Cross Factor and Dalton Dinkel each delivered two-run singles after the Tigers had loaded the bases on a single, hit batsman and a walk.
KCKCC tried to rally in the seventh with back-to-back singles by Brigham Mooney and Schumacher before Cowley ended it on the 8-run rule in the bottom of the inning, Kea’von Edwards singling in the final two runs after a pair of walks..
Cowley jumped in front 2-0 in the first against Ortiz, scoring both runs on three straight two-out singles. Alex Petersen made it 4-0 with a two-out, two-run single in the second and the Tigers sent Ortiz to the sidelines in the third, scoring twice on a single and three walks, one with the bases-loaded.
Bret Snider retired the next five hitters but was lifted in the sixth after a single and walk to start the inning. Julian Rivera and Gunner Vestal each gave up two runs in relief and Hunter Paxton was touched for the game-ending single.